New Beginnings
by Romanonurse
Summary: A new Doctor comes to County. Dr 'Rocket' Romano isn't happy about it, but can she convince him she's not who he thinks she is?
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters, so please don't sue! _

_This is my first fanfic so please read and review! I don't know if this story is going anywhere, but I thought it was time for some fresh Romano love!_

**Chapter One - Meetings**

"Hey Andrea – wait up!" Susan called down the corridor and quickened her pace to catch up with her friend. "How's your first day going?"

"Hi Susan!" Andrea beamed. "I'm just doing my orientation and trying to get the layout of the place, it's such a large hospital. The last thing I need is to get lost on my way to an emergency consult!"

"It must be really different to your hospital back in Sydney?" Susan asked.

"Well....there's no beach across the road and it's freezing outside so...yeah," Andrea laughed, suddenly getting a pang of homesickness.

"Well I'm _thrilled _to finally have you here in the States; Australia is just too far away for my liking! So have you had a chance to meet our new Chief of Staff yet?" Susan asked carefully. She wondered how well Andrea would cope with Romano on a daily basis. She was so nice and Romano, well, he wasn't.

"No – I thought Dr Anspaugh was the Chief?" Andrea said, confused. "I mean, he interviewed me and everything."

"It only happened the other day. Dr Anspaugh lost his son recently and decided to leave the job to spend more time with his family" Susan said as they walked towards the elevator.

"Oh, that's awful – I had no idea!" Andrea wished she had known so she could send flowers or something.

"So now Dr Romano is the Chief. He's an excellent surgeon...he just needs a personality transplant" Susan laughed.

"Thanks for the heads up. Anyway, I need to head back upstairs and meet the scrub nurses I'll be working with. I've got to get on their good side from day one otherwise I'm screwed" she joked.

"Sure, don't forget drinks tonight at Cru bar. I'll meet you here at 7?"

"Yeah that sounds great! I could use a night away from looking at all my unpacked boxes!" They hugged quickly and Andrea got into the elevator and pressed the button for the surgical floor.

She had a feeling Susan was holding back on just how unpleasant Dr Romano was. 'Another bastard boss is the last thing I need' she thought. She had dealt with a lot of difficult colleagues at her hospital back in Sydney, and working with the pricks every day influenced her decision to take this job and move to the other side of the planet. As she exited the lift she spotted Dr Anspaugh in the surgeon's lounge and thought it would be best if he introduced her to the new boss.

"Dr Anspaugh...." Andrea stopped when she saw he was speaking to someone who she didn't see from the corridor. "Oh...I'm sorry, I didn't see you were talking to someone....I'll catch up with you later" she said as she turned to exit the lounge.

"Andrea! We were just talking about you! I've got someone for you to meet" Anspaugh said, gesturing towards the person he was with. "This is Dr Robert Romano, who will be taking over from me as Chief of Staff. Dr Romano this is Dr Andrea Garrity, our new attending neurosurgeon" Donald smiled seeming very pleased with himself.

Andrea reached out and shook hands with Romano, who smiled briefly at her before turning back to Anspaugh.

"Donald - you didn't think it was necessary for me to know until right now that you hired a new attending? Seeing as I'm taking over from you I would have thought you would consult me about it."

"Andrea is an excellent surgeon, she has relocated from Sydney specifically for this job and you really have no reason to doubt her abilities" Anspaugh said, defending her.

"It's not _her_ skill I doubt Donald, it's your decision making abilities" Romano said, briefly looking Andrea up and down appreciatively.

'Oh great – a jerk and a pervert, what a great mix' Andrea thought.

"One might include my decision to make you Chief as one of my poorer decisions Robert."

"Point taken Donald, I guess I could just fire her if she pisses me off" Romano said. "Well, I shall see you around Dr Garrity" he said before storming out and letting the door slam, making the two of them jump.

"So _that's _Dr Romano" Andrea said, turning to pour both of them a cup of coffee. "Dr Lewis said he needed a personality transplant – clearly she was being conservative."

They both burst out laughing.

"I hope you're up to the challenge Andrea?" Donald questioned.

"Oh you bet" she replied.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue!_

**Chapter 2 – Making an impression**

Romano stormed back to his office. "Brenda!"

"Yes, Dr Romano?"

"No one is to come near this office and I don't want any phone calls otherwise you're fired!" He bellowed at his long suffering assistant.

"Yes, Dr Romano" she sighed rolling her eyes, making sure he didn't see.

He couldn't believe Donald went and hired a new attending just before he was due to take over as Chief. He wondered what else the old codger was getting up to before he handed over the baton. It wouldn't be a problem if she was a resident, but being an attending neurosurgeon she would have a big hand in what happened in the department and be able to vote on committee decisions. She could seriously put a stop to some of the things he wanted to achieve as Chief. He was sure Donald would only hire someone who shared similar opinions to how a department would run, opinions which were frequently the entire opposite of Romano's.

'At least she's hot - not stripper hot - but elegant, and at least ten years younger than you' the primal part of his brain thought. 'No, don't go there again Romano' he chastised himself. 'That's how they get you – lure you in with good looks then cut your balls off and leave you for dead.'

He looked up through the glass in his office door to see Andrea talking and laughing with Jacey and Shirley. "She's getting the nurses on side early – that's all I need – a coup" he said out loud to himself. He watched her easy manner with the two nurses; it looked like she had known them for years. Just then she threw her head back and laughed at something Shirley said, showing her long neck and perfect teeth. He could feel his pants tighten and shifted in his seat. 'Get a grip Robert' he thought 'and not _that_ kind of grip.'

Andrea had that uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching her and glanced around, finally spotting Dr Romano looking at her from his office. They locked eyes for a matter of seconds before he looked away. Andrea flushed bright red.

"What's wrong?" Shirley asked, looking around to see what Andrea was looking at.

"Sorry? No, nothing" Andrea said hoping Shirley hadn't noticed where she was looking. Shirley looked at her sceptically. "Actually.... yes there is. I don't think Dr Romano is very happy about Dr Anspaugh hiring me, he seems to think it was done intentionally behind his back or something."

"Romano can be a real pain in the ass, not that you heard that from me of course."

"Of course......" Andrea smiled.

"Knowing him like I do; he probably thinks Donald hired you to stop him from going completely power crazy as Chief. You will have a hell of a lot of influence around here. I wouldn't worry about it, he'll calm down eventually - it's not like you'll be in the OR with him on a regular basis anyway.

"Thanks Shirley." Andrea said, sighing.

"Anytime!" Shirley replied, collecting her charts and heading off to the OR.

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By the time 7pm rolled around, Andrea had done her orientation, organized her surgical schedule for the next day and started to get her office in order. She went back down to the ER to meet up with Susan.

"Hey chickadee" Susan called out to her.

"Hey! God, I need a drink!"

"Join the club! Andrea this is one of our best nurses, Abby Lockhart; and one of our doctors, Jing-mei Chen."

"It's great to meet you!" She said giving each a quick hug and kiss.

"You too - we keep hearing all about Susan's Australian friend" Abby said, wrapping her coat around her tightly as they entered the cold Chicago winter.

"Ok guys – save the small chat for the bar - let's go!" Susan called out, marching on ahead.

..................................................................................................................................................................

Romano rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch – 7pm. 'Go home Robert' he told himself. He rarely went home before 9pm but he had reached his limit today. 'Why the hell did I want this job?' He wondered, shutting down his computer.

He decided to cut through the ER on his way out, just in case he spotted something he needed to harass Kerry about. Coming around the corner to go though the main exit he saw Andrea talking and laughing with Lewis, Chen and that annoying nurse that was screwing Luka and thought she had a chance at graduating med school. 'Shit, if she _is_ the enemy then she's infiltrated the ER too' he thought. He watched them all leave together, waiting until they were well out of sight before exiting himself.

..................................................................................................................................................................

"God I love this place." Susan said getting stuck into a cosmo.

"Agreed!" They chorused.

"So what brings you all the way over here to Chicago?" Chen asked while eyeing a hot guy at the bar.

"Well, I just needed a change. A couple of years ago I spent some time living in London and really enjoyed it, so I thought it would be good to try living somewhere else for a while and with Susan here, it made sense."

"So how did you two meet?" Abby asked, lighting up a cigarette.

"Travelling through South America, we both ended up sick with food poisoning and shared a vomit bowl one long lonely night" Susan laughed.

"Nice" Abby said downing the rest of her cosmo in one gulp.

"So....." Susan started. "Did you end up meeting Romano?" They all looked at her expectantly.

"I sure did – you were right Susan, but I've been assured it's not anything I can't handle" Andrea said, hoping they would back up her last comment.

"Well....good luck to you" Abby said raising her second cosmo up in the air. "I couldn't work with him full time. But if you ever need to give him pay back – just let us know."

"I'll keep that in mind" Andrea said laughing.

They ended up getting home very late and very drunk, but at least they had a great time. She was pleased she had made some new friends, it made being over here that little bit easier.

..................................................................................................................................................................

Early the next morning Andrea walked through the ER and pressed the button for the elevator drinking her first of what would be many coffees for the day. 'Why the hell did I drink so much last night?' She asked herself as the doors opened. Just as the doors were about to close behind her, a voice called out "Hold the elevator!" Andrea quickly turned around and stuck her hand out to stop the doors closing and looked up to see Romano dash for the doors.

"Thanks" he mumbled, a little out of breath.

"No worries. I thought I was the only one who liked ridiculously early mornings" she said trying to make conversation.

"I need to get my evil plotting in before all the mindless idiots arrive and I have to spend the rest of the day babysitting" he said.

Andrea laughed at his comment which startled Romano; normally women would just look at him in distaste for saying that sort of thing. He looked over at her; she had taken her coat off and had on a charcoal grey wool dress which fit her perfectly, finishing just below her knees. She wore no jewellery besides pearl earrings and a Cartier tank watch, and had her hair in a loose bun. 'I wish more women would dress like that' he thought.

"I'm hoping I'll have at least a few weeks before I have my own residents to look after, it's exhausting having to watch their every move" she lamented.

"I'm sure we can give you a few weeks grace" Romano said as the elevator doors opened. He stepped back to allow her out first. 'Keep your friends close and your potential enemies closer' he thought.

Andrea smiled as the doors opened. She wondered whether she should just confront him about what Shirley had told her.

"Um....Dr Romano, do you have a few minutes?"

"Sure, cause I've got all the time in the world" He said sarcastically, gesturing to his office. He wondered what she was going to unleash on him. Maybe he could use this opportunity to find out exactly what her intentions were here at County.

Andrea walked in first glancing around at his antique surgical instruments and impressive book collection. The room smelled like soap and aftershave, along with a background smell of surgical scrub and the leather from the chairs. It was sexy. She noticed a large model rocket on his desk and his desk plaque which said "Robert 'Rocket' Romano M.D." 'How did he get _that _nickname?' She wondered, smirking inwardly.

"So what's troubling you?" Romano questioned, sinking back into his chair and looking at her intently.

She decided to just come out with it. "I have the distinct feeling you think I was hired by Anspaugh to do his bidding in his absence" she said honestly. "Now, where I come from we don't beat about the bush, and I want you to know that was absolutely not why Anspaugh gave me the job. I came here to start a new life, not get involved in nasty hospital politics."

Romano was speechless. He had no idea she would just come out and confront him and certainly not that she would figure out why he was pissy about Anspaugh hiring her. "Dr Garrity....I don't......"

"It's OK. I would probably assume the same thing myself."

"How do I know you're telling the truth? I've made a lot of enemies here – Anspaugh being one of them, it's just a little convenient that he hired you a matter of weeks before he was due to leave. "

"You don't" she said simply. "But do you honestly think I would move halfway across the globe to get involved in a pissing match between two people I don't know?"

He knew she was telling the truth. One thing he was good at was reading people.

His face softened. For the first time Andrea really looked at him. He was handsome in a quiet way, despite being bald and he had amazing brown eyes. It was like he could see right into you.

Andrea realised she was staring and jumped up, suddenly self conscious. "Well, I'd better get to work, I've still got to sort out my office – it's a mess" she said making her way to the door.

Romano jumped up too and opened the door for her. She looked at him one last time as she walked past him and he could smell the heady scent of her perfume. She smelled of gardenias.


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue!_

**Chapter 3 - Getting to know you**

Andrea was settling in well to County's routine. She had never worked so many hours before but it's not like she would have been doing anything else at home anyway. Plus, the experience was invaluable - she never got to see gunshot wounds and stabbings back home in Sydney. She struggled to focus on her watch through sleepy eyes – 7pm on a Friday night. 'I should really go home. I wonder if Susan and the girls want to come round.' Just as she stood up and reached for her coat, Romano's figure shadowed her doorway.

"Not rushing off to a hot date are you?" He questioned in a teasing voice.

"Oh yeah – cause I have _so _much spare time on my hands to meet someone" she returned sarcastically.

"I don't know if what you do with your hands in your spare time is appropriate workplace talk Doctor."

"Oh for God's sake Robert!" Andrea said exasperated. "I just want to go home, have a hot bath, open a bottle of bubbly, gossip with the girls and eat ice cream till I burst." She moved to walk past him but he blocked her way out.

Romano tried hard not to think of her in the bath, naked and covered in bubbles. He shook the thoughts from his head. They had been getting on reasonably well since she confronted him – as well as Romano could get along with anyone anyway. They had agreed on several major proposals that were made to the hospital and he felt she genuinely had the interests of County at heart. He liked her a lot, though he wasn't keen to have feelings for someone again anytime soon. Besides, what would a woman like her want with a man like him? He had made that mistake with Elizabeth – reaching too high. He wasn't about to do that again, sometimes it really was better to just be friends.

"Well, the bath and champagne part sounds good anyway." Andrea rolled her eyes at him. "Alas, no such luck. We have a community services committee meeting in 20 minutes."

"On a Friday night?!"

"Yep, these losers don't have social lives it would seem, so we have to suffer along with them. Don't worry, your little buddy Lewis will be there too, seeing as she's acting head of the ER now."

"Well, seeing as Susan will be there and I won't have to talk to you, I guess it won't be so bad" she teased, moving past him.

"Ha, ha, _everyone's _a comedian" he said drily as they walked towards the lift.

Down in the ER, Andrea tried to track down Susan. After 10 minutes of looking and trying to calm Romano who was getting increasingly pissed off, she found her in an exam room with one of the fire-fighters, giving him a not quite so medically-based examination.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Andrea gasped quickly shutting the exam room door as quickly as she could. She flushed red. Robert looked at her questioningly.

Susan emerged, straightening herself and the fire-fighter sneaked off down the corridor, trying hard not to be seen. It was clear to Romano what they had been up to.

"So....Dr Lewis..." Robert started. "Trying to subsidise your income or are you just giving out freebies?"

"I've been seeing him for awhile for your information, not that it's any of your business" Susan said, walking into the coffee room and hanging up her lab coat.

"Oh right. Which part of him have you been seeing exactly?" Romano asked, gesturing to them, trying to get them to hurry up as they were already late.

"Don't even" Susan said, completely shutting him down before he had time to think of another remark.

"I wish _I_ could shut him up that quickly" she whispered to Susan as they made their way to the main meeting room. Romano walked several paces behind them.

"Don't worry, I'll give you lessons sometime" Susan and Andrea laughed loudly and both turned in unison to look at Romano.

"Settle down you two, otherwise I'll have to give you both detention and write letters to your parents asking why you can behave yourselves."

Romano smiled inwardly. It was nice to hear people laughing for a change rather than whingeing at him. He had always thought that Lewis was a decent doctor, unlike the rest of the morons in the ER. He could see why she and Andrea would be good friends.

They were relieved to find they weren't the only people late, and after a 45 minute wait, the meeting ended up being cancelled due to so many no shows.

Andrea felt resentful. 'I could have been at home snuggled in bed by now' she thought bitterly.

"So I guess you get your night back to chin wag with your groupies" Romano said, putting on his coat.

"Yeah, though I'll probably just climb straight into bed truth be told. I'm just so beyond tired" Andrea said, trying to stifle a yawn.

Susan was just hanging up her mobile phone when they joined her in the corridor. "That was my fire-fighter; I'm popping around his place tonight" she said excitedly. "Don't forget tomorrow night!" Susan gave her friend a quick hug and rushed off.

"What's happening tomorrow night?" Robert questioned.

"Nothing....just...um...taping something for Susan. Some documentary or something" she said vaguely. She didn't want him to know about the blind date that Susan had set her up on. She didn't feel that comfortable with the idea to be honest and thought she might just cancel.

Romano and Andrea headed towards the car park. She stopped abruptly. "Actually, I think I'm just going to take the train home. I'm too tired to drive" she said, fighting to keep her eyes open.

"It's called the El not 'the train'" he said, mocking her Australian accent. "Come on - I'll take you home" he offered.

Andrea hesitated. "I don't want you to go out of your way just because I'm too lazy to drive Robert."

"It's no problem. Now come on, otherwise we will freeze to death out here, and I don't make offers to help twice" he said, continuing to walk to the car park.

Andrea followed quickly behind him. When they got to his car - a very nice Jag - she went to get into the left hand side.

"How do you suppose I'm going to drive if you are in the driver's seat?"

"Sorry! I can't get used to driving on the other side of the road. You have no idea how many times I've gotten in the right hand side of the car and tried to put my keys in the ignition."

"You guys really are backwards aren't you? Remind me to never let you drive anywhere" he said, getting in the driver's seat and gunning the engine.

"Hey! I resent that! Everyone thinks Australia is so behind because we're isolated from the rest of the world. That's simply not the case" she replied defensively.

"Ok, ok. Don't go all Crocodile Dundee on me" he said, to which he received an unimpressed glare.

They drove the rest of the way to Andrea's house in silence, but only because she kept drifting in and out of sleep. Robert occasionally glanced over at her as he drove. She was doing that thing where the act of your head dropping as you fall asleep actually wakes you up. He smirked, thinking how cute she looked.

When he pulled up in front of her house, Robert debated how to go about waking her up. First he tried clearing his throat loudly. Nothing. He leant over and stroked her cheek, which had the desired effect. Her skin was so soft and warm; he had to resist the urge to do it again. Andrea looked up at him with half-closed eyes, apparently not noticing what had woken her up, to his immense relief.

"Are we here already?"

"Sure are. Are you alright to get out yourself?"

"Yes, of course. Just wait till I get inside ok? I'll see you on Monday." She found her keys and got out of his warm car into the cold night. 'God I hate coming home to an empty house' she thought.

"Goodnight Robert, and thanks again." He just nodded his response and waited until he knew she was safely inside. He sighed and drove off, thinking about another lonely weekend on his own.

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Andrea woke up to sunlight streaming into her living room. She hadn't even made it to her bedroom; she slept on the couch with her coat and shoes still on. She looked at her watch - 10am! She never slept in that late, she must have really needed it.

She got up to make herself a coffee and headed to the bathroom. She turned the water on hot and fast, shed yesterday's clothes and jumped in the shower. She decided she would go tonight, if only because she knew Susan would harass her so much if she didn't. She didn't know why everyone made such a fuss - what was the big deal? She had only been single for two years. 'Wait a minute - has it really been that long since I've had sex?!' She was shocked. Even though, she was generally happy on her own and she didn't want to be the dumping ground for everyone to throw their single brothers, cousins or friends of friends.

In a shower on the other side of Chicago, Romano stood pondering his day. He could always get caught up on some of his charts. He had fallen behind in a lot of things since taking over as Chief - there were simply not enough hours in the day. 'What a loser' he thought to himself. 'Going into work on my weekend because I don't have anything better to do.' He got dressed in his usual work attire – a black suit, white shirt and light blue tie; gulped the last mouthful of his coffee and headed to the hospital.

Andrea had spent most of her day unpacking some residual boxes, organising her closet and shopping for something to wear on her date. She started her usual pre-date routine, putting some Paula Cole on her ipod and pouring herself some Aussie bubbly. For Andrea, the pre-date routine was often more fun than the date itself and she relished having some time to pamper herself. She carefully applied her makeup, keeping it quite neutral and pulled her dark brown hair up into a messy chignon. She then slipped into her new Chanel dress which was black with a deep v-neck front and back and embellished with diamantes just on the shoulders. It was the exact same one Audrey Tatou wore in that movie 'Priceless.' It was perfect, sexy yet classy. Almost ready, she sprayed on some of her favourite perfume - Michael Kors; slipped on her favourite black heels, grabbed her coat and headed out. Her taxi was already waiting for her and she jumped in, gave the cabbie the name of the restaurant and was off.

Robert ended up spending the whole day at the hospital and to top it off he didn't get done what he intended to. As per usual a gunfight broke out downtown and he spent most of his time stitching the victims back together again. It was after 8pm and having blasted Luka about the number of unnecessary admissions he had done that day he headed out. As he approached his Jag he realised the last thing he wanted to do was go home and spend the evening in front of the TV. After standing there for a few moments thinking, he turned sharply on his heels and headed down towards Lake Michigan. A stroll along the water would help clear his head and stop him getting cabin fever, even though it was freezing out. He grabbed a hot chocolate and sat on one of the benches lining the walkway. After cursing how cold the seat was on his rear he started to think about where his life was going. Robert was not a man who spent a lot of time soul searching - he lived for work, and he was bloody good at his job. He occasionally had 'relationships' but you couldn't have anything fulfilling with bimbos who just wanted your money, and to be honest, it was all getting a bit old. 'Just like me' he thought sadly. It was only since Elizabeth had left that he started feeling this way. At least with her around he had a reason besides work to get out of bed, even though he knew he would never get to take her _to _bed. Now with her living back in England his days seemed empty. No one else in that cesspit was worth his time. 'Besides Andrea' he thought. She was like a breath of fresh air at County, she was young and being Australian, she spoke her mind though was never nasty about it. You always knew where you stood with her. He loved that quality. 'Not to mention she's hot as hell.' He quickly shook that thought from his head. He couldn't stand falling for another colleague and even compared to Elizabeth, Andrea was just too far out of reach.

She had been sitting at the table waiting for close to an hour, nursing a glass of red wine. She checked her mobile and her home answering machine – no messages. She tried ringing Susan....no answer. '_This _is why I don't go on blind dates. I've been rejected by a total stranger.' She decided to go. If there was a genuine reason he was late he would have called. He didn't even have work as an excuse – it was Saturday. She walked up to the maitre d' and apologised for holding the table.

"That's not a problem Miss Garrity" she said politely, then leaning in she whispered "what a _jerk_! Don't worry about paying for the wine – it's on me." Andrea smiled and thanked her and made her way out. She thought she would have a walk along the water. Even though it was freezing, she loved looking at the city at night. As she made her way towards the city along the water, she thought she saw someone she recognised and as she got closer she realised the person had a bald head she knew very well. Robert Romano. 'What the hell is _he_ doing sitting there in the freezing cold?' She paused for a moment watching him. He had his elbows resting on his knees and he was holding a hot drink, its steam evaporating into the cold air. He looked deep in thought.

She walked towards him. "Come here often?" She joked, standing in front of him.

"Andrea! What are you doing here? I mean....what are you doing walking around alone at night...so dressed up?" He was just thinking about her and there she was standing in front of him, as though he imagined her there.

She moved and sat down close next to him, feeling his warmth on her thigh. "You really want to know?" She asked.

"Yes, unless it's really boring. Then you can make something up instead" he said sarcastically.

"I got stood up" she said hanging her head with embarrassment. "I don't even know what I'm doing letting Susan set me up on a blind date anyway, and now a complete stranger has hurt my feelings and I feel like a loser. I thought I'd walk some of the way home....so that's how my night has been. What about you? What are you doing out here?

He was shocked. What kind of moron would stand her up? "You're just assuming he stood you up? Maybe he had a good reason." He tried to sound optimistic for her, but being a man himself he knew guys never had a good reason for not showing up.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better. If he had a good reason, he would have called, he has my number. And don't even suggest that he might have had the wrong night because he called the other night to confirm."

"Well, I'm not going to lie, but what I can tell you is that he's a moron and has no idea what he's missing out on."

"Thanks Robert" she could feel her cheeks flushing and hoped that he didn't notice it.

"Well, it's true. As for me, I've been in the OR all day, fixing those unfortunate enough to have passed through the ER. So I'm just decompressing I guess you could say." He tried not to sound as depressed as he was.

Was this the same asshole Romano from work? Right now he seemed so _gentle._ Robert moved from beside her, stood up and held his hand out to her.

"Come on. I can be your blind date – and I promise not to feel you up after dinner."

"Why do I not believe you?" She said laughing, taking his hand. "Are you sure? I don't want you to give up your night for me Robert." As she stood up she was very close to him and could feel the warmth of his breath on her face.

"Don't be silly, you're doing _me_ the favour." He wandered how this might sound to her, but looking over she didn't seem to make anything of it.

He thought of where to take her for dinner - he wanted her to have a good time after the crappy way her night started. On the other hand, he didn't want it to be somewhere too romantic, after all it wasn't a real date and he didn't want her to think he thought it was.

"So what do you feel like?"

"I'm not fussed as long as there's steak – I could really go for a big steak. And _a lot_ of red wine."

He thought of the perfect place and hailed a cab, opening the door for her and gave the cabbie directions to the restaurant.


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue!_

_Please read and review, so I know if this story is actually going anywhere! I've mixed up the timeline a bit too with Mark's passing – don't hate me!_

**Chapter Four – Dinner for Two**

The cab pulled up in front of the restaurant, which was simply called _GRILL._ Andrea felt a little nervous as she got out of the taxi; she had never spent much time with Romano alone, let alone had a non-work related meal with him. She didn't know whether she should stick to shop talk or try to get to know him. He offered his arm for her to take, and it struck her that he was simply doing it because he was a gentleman, not to have an excuse to touch her. When they entered the restaurant, he asked for a table and apologized for not having a reservation. Luckily, as it was so late there was a table free. They were seated near a large bay window, which showed the beautiful skyline of Chicago.

"So did the community services committee ever get around to rescheduling that meeting? Actually....don't answer that. If I don't know a date, I have a good reason for not going." She said.

"Andrea....I don't really want to talk about work."

"Fine by me." What _did _he want to talk about then? She turned her head to look out the window.

Romano noticed Andrea looking out over the city. "It's beautiful isn't it?"

"I love Chicago, especially at night. I never thought anywhere in the world would compare to Sydney, but Chicago comes pretty close. If only it wasn't for your freezing winters" she laughed.

"I imagine the cold weather has taken some getting used to. I've lived here for close to twenty years and I still have trouble coping with it."

The waitress came to their table to give them their menus. "Can I get you any drinks to start you with while you look at the menu and wine list?"

"I'll have a whisky on the rocks" he requested, not looking up from the menu.

"And I'll have a martini, thanks. So you're not from here then Robert?" She asked, opening her menu. She had a feeling getting conversation out of him was going to be like getting blood from a stone.

"No. I was born in Philadelphia actually."

The waitress bought their drinks over. They both immediately took a swig.

"So, are you ready to order?" The waitress asked, looking bored.

"Sure. I'll have the 12oz fillet, medium rare please" Andrea said, snapping her menu shut.

"And you Sir?"

"I'll have the same. And can we have a bottle of the Penfold's Shiraz?" Andrea raised her eyebrows. He had ordered Australian wine.

"Not a problem" the waitress said, taking their menus.

"What?" He asked, smirking at her.

"Never mind. So you were saying you were from Philadelphia? What brought you to Chicago?" She took another mouthful of her martini, the alcohol starting to have its calming effect on her.

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table, whisky in hand. "Well, I needed the change really, and I'd always loved Chicago. Plus the right job showed up at the right time. So...what about you, Andrea? What brought _you_ to Chicago?"

His voice had a slightly seductive undertone, which for some reason made her heart quicken a few beats. "Well....I was living in London last year, and when I got back to Sydney I just didn't feel like I fit in anywhere. I had gotten heaps of surgical experience in Europe, travelled heaps and had seen all these amazing places around the world and I felt like I was just seen as an outsider. I think everyone thought _I _thought I was too good to be there or something, which was just not the case. Anyway, I had met Susan while I was travelling through South America - we became such good friends, so when I told her I wasn't happy at home, she suggested I might want to come over here for awhile and see how I liked it. So here I am."

"Well, we're all the better for having you, it's nice to have some fresh ideas."

"So, you've finally gotten over the notion that I'm Anspaugh's 'secret agent'?" She laughed as their food arrived. Andrea didn't realise how hungry she was until the food was put down in front of her.

"Yes, well, you haven't tried to bring my empire down.....yet" he said drily, unfolding his napkin onto his lap. The waitress poured the wine for Robert to taste, and he nodded his approval. He took the bottle from her and filled their glasses.

"It's only a matter of time...." She joked, looking up to find an unimpressed look on his face which made her crack up laughing as she cut into her steak.

He watched her dig into her steak, loving that she wasn't self-conscious about enjoying eating in front of a man, like so many women were. 'What is it they say...the way people eat food is the way they are in bed?' If that was the case, she would be fantastic – and she certainly had a healthy appetite. "This wine is fantastic, if there's one thing you Aussies do well, its wine."

"There's a lot of things we do well, Robert" she said, surprised at how seductively she said it.

"Oh, I'm sure there are _plenty_ of things you do well Andrea" he smirked.

She looked up at him, feeling herself flush slightly. He didn't break her gaze for a few seconds. 'Crap, what if he thinks I'm making a pass at him?' She had to admit, she was surprised at how civil and lovely he was being, and there was an underlying _sexiness_ to him she had never noticed before. It was really nice to be out in the company of a man and she had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't a real date. She looked at his strong and capable hands cutting into his steak, and imagined them on her body. 'Snap out of it!' She chastised herself. 'Where is that coming from? This is Romano you're thinking about. He's your boss.'

He felt a distinct shift between them in that moment and he didn't really know if it was just harmless flirtation, or her being uncomfortable. He noticed her flush, and wondered if it was in embarrassment or excitement. She looked fantastic tonight; whoever stood her up was a total moron. He would do anything for her to have so much as a passing interest in him and that guy just threw her away. The waitress cleared their empty plates away and topped up their wine glasses. Andrea held her wine glass in her hand, swirling the dark liquid to release the scent.

"So, do you have any family here or back in Philadelphia?" She tried to get the conversation going again.

"I have my mother and sister and her family in Philly. As for my dad...he left when I was about 15" he said glancing away from her.

"Oh, I'm sorry Robert" she said, reaching out and putting her hand on top of his, squeezing slightly.

He felt a shiver of excitement go up his arm when she touched him, and looked down at her delicate hand on top of his. "Don't worry - its fine. I'm still really close to my mum and my sister has great kids, so I'm lucky really - though I don't get to see them often enough. What about you?" She kept her hand on top of his, and he took a risk and moved his thumb slightly to stroke hers. To his amazement, she didn't pull away.

"My parents own a vineyard in the Hunter Valley about an hour North of Sydney, pretty close to where they make this actually" she said, gesturing to her wine glass. "I've got one older brother, a country boy through and through and one sister who's a lawyer." Andrea pulled her hand away to pick up her wine glass.

"So you're a country girl? You don't look like one tonight that's for sure" he said, taking a mouthful of wine.

"I think I'll take that as a compliment. I even have my own cows, pigs and horses at my country house. My brother looks after them when I'm not there." As she spoke, she shifted in her chair and their legs brushed against each other, giving her that flush of butterflies in her stomach. She had no idea why she was feeling like this around Romano, but she couldn't deny the feeling he was giving her, the stroking her hand, his seductive looks. She was seeing a totally different side to him and she liked it – a lot. "I was happy I moved to the city though. Have you ever been to Australia?"

"No, I haven't been lucky enough to get there yet. I've travelled extensively through Europe though; I used to work there a lot actually and in London like you."

"Really? What hospital were you at?"

"Guy's and Thomas."

"Ah, I worked there briefly last year, but my consultant surgeon was a total pain in the ass – Dr Charles Corday. His daughter worked there too, but she was lovely. She ended up helping me get a job in Harley Street actually. I can't think of her first name...wait...Elizabeth Corday. It was really sad actually; her husband had just passed away."

His heart skipped a few beats. She knew Lizzie. She had seen her more recently than he had. "Yes, I know Dr Corday – both of them actually – and yes, Charles is a pain in the ass. Elizabeth worked at County. Her husband, Mark, was a Doctor in the ER."

"I had no idea! Obviously I hadn't decided to move to Chicago when I worked with her, so she didn't have reason to tell me." Andrea was shocked, what a small world. "Did you know her well?"

"If working together everyday means knowing someone well, then yes I guess so."

He sounded distant, as if he was thinking about something else. She wondered if he was hiding something to do with his relationship with Elizabeth Corday.

It was getting quite late and Robert realised they would have to leave soon, the wait staff were starting to clean up. He wasn't sure how to end the evening - should they share a taxi or not? He took his last mouthful of wine and gestured to the waitress for the bill. "Come on farm girl, it's past your bedtime I'm sure."

The waitress came over with the bill which Robert insisted on paying.

"Don't be silly Robert, if I hadn't gotten stood up, you wouldn't even be here, let me pay." She reached for her wallet.

"Andrea, as hard as it may be for you to believe, I have some gentlemanly qualities one of which being that I never let a lady pay for anything" he said, handing his credit card to the waitress.

"It's only a little hard to believe" she said smiling at him "Thank you."

"You're more than welcome. Anytime."

They both got up and he grabbed her coat and helped her into it, gently brushing the bare skin of her arms as he slipped it up. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck and her butt brushed against his groin; she heard his sharp intake of breath and he briefly squeezed her arms in response.

Andrea turned to face him; they were still standing very close to each other. "Robert....." she started but he cut her off.

"I'll get you a taxi" he said, turning to walk outside. She followed quickly behind him.

When she got outside, he had already hailed one and had the door opened for her. "Do you want to share with me?" She asked.

"No, I think I should get the next one" he said.

"Robert? Have I done something wrong?"

"No, of course not Andrea. I'll see you on Monday. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Robert." She got in the taxi and drove off, looking out the back window to see him standing there watching her disappear into the horizon.


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue._

**Chapter Five – Aftermath**

Andrea woke to the blare of her alarm. She had one of those sleeps where it feels like you only just put your head on the pillow and then BAM, your alarm was going off. She rubbed her eyes and stretched her body out; it was so hard to get up in the cold and dark. She wondered what Robert would be like at work today. She had spent a lot of yesterday thinking about Saturday night and why she suddenly had this soft spot for him. He was just so different to the way he was at work, and this 'new' Romano really had her head spinning. She thought about the moment when he helped her into her coat, him sliding his hands up her arms and his groin pressed into her butt....his gasp, and the tight squeeze of her arms – as if he was trying to gain control of himself. 'Argh! Stop torturing yourself.' She jumped out of bed and headed for the shower. She wondered whether she should talk to Susan about it. Surely she would think Andrea was stark-raving mad.

Robert was already on his way to work. Once he parked, he sat in his car and thought about how to deal with his feelings for Andrea. He didn't want to do what he had done to Lizzie – make her life hell because of his frustration at not being able to be with her but he couldn't stand another rejection. He felt fairly certain that she was just humouring him on Saturday night, she felt bad for him sitting outside on his own and felt she couldn't say no to his offer of dinner. Her hand on his was just her being friendly; her flirting just a way to deal with him; her leaning into him when helping her with her coat a miscalculation of how close he was standing to her. All he wanted to do in that moment was drag her back to his place and make love to her all night. He was pleased he had the self control to wait for another taxi; otherwise he might have tried to do just that. He made his way to his office through the ER which was a hive of activity. They had just accepted three patients who needed a neurosurgeon. Kerry yelled at him like a banshee – where the hell was Andrea? Kerry said she had been paged several times and they had not so much as a call from her. 'More ER mess to clean up, only this time, one of my surgeon's is responsible for it' he thought angrily as he pressed the elevator button for the surgical floor.

Andrea raced out the front door still with wet hair only to realise her car was still at the hospital. "Shit!" She yelled out loud and quickly whipped out her mobile to call for a taxi. Her pager had gone off while she was in the shower and she hadn't heard it until the fourth time they tried, while she was making coffee. Her pager went off again. She tried calling the ER so she could do a phone consult and explain her absence, but no one picked up so she quickly dialled Robert's office number, desperately hoping he would be there. The phone rang a few times before Brenda answered with a gruff "Dr Romano's office."

"Hi Brenda, its Andrea, can you put me through to Robert?"

"Sure, if you want to get your head ripped off" Brenda whispered.

"Just put me through." 'Great, he is pissed at me' she thought as she waited for the phone to connect.

"What?" He yelled down the phone

"Robert, its Andrea...."

"And would you be interested in turning up any time soon? There are three neuro traumas in the ER, Kerry's freaking out because we've got no neurosurgeon and we've been paging you constantly for twenty minutes" he yelled.

"I know, I got the pages, I forgot my car was still at the hospital from......"

"I don't give a shit! Be here in 5 minutes or don't bother coming back! Oh, and if any of these patients die – it's on your head, not mine!" He slammed the phone down on her.

As luck would have it, the taxi pulled up just as she shut her mobile. Her pager went off again.

"County General as fast as you can." The driver put his foot down and sped off.

As Andrea ran into the ER, Susan greeted her outside trauma one.

"Where have you been?" She sounded stressed.

"Just tell me what's going on with this patient Susan" Andrea said sternly.

"Slip and fall in the shower, LOC for a few minutes, walked in and now seizing for 2 minutes, given lorazapam to no effect."

"It's a sub-dural. Take him up to the OR now!" she barked and headed into the next trauma room.

"GSW to the head, grey matter everywhere" Kerry said, trying to place an ET tube while Carter did CPR.

"Don't bother Kerry, he's dead." She whipped her gloves off and headed into the next room where she was needed.

"Thank god you're here – looks like a cerebral aneurysm to me – sudden headache and collapse at home, history of vascular disease" Luka said.

"Yep, I think you're right Luka" she said after doing a quick but expert evaluation. "I'll take this one up. Call the OR and tell them to get ready for two craniotomies and tell Shirley to find another neurosurgeon, I can't be in two places at once!"

This was the problem with neurosurgery – there were so few of you that if you had more than one trauma at a time it was a big issue. The other neurosurgeon she worked with was away, as of this morning. To have 3 traumas all at once was very unlucky.

Andrea and Malik took the aneurysm patient to the lift and squeezed in with Susan and Abby who were taking the first patient up.

"Hey, where were you this morning?" Susan asked, sounding worried.

"I didn't hear my pager cause I was in the shower, then I forgot I left my car here on Friday night, and didn't realise until I ran outside to get into it after noticing I'd been paged about a million times" Andrea answered, rubbing her eyes.

"Don't worry about it – I don't even know where my pager is half the time" Susan reassured her friend, and Abby nodded in agreement causing Susan to give her a look of contempt.

The elevator doors opened to present an extremely pissed off looking Romano, who was standing in front of the doors, hands on hips. He glared at Andrea.

"Well, it's about fucking time" he snarled and took the sub-dural patient from Susan and Abby. "Get back downstairs where you belong – you too" he said pointing at Malik.

Susan gave Andrea a look that said 'poor you' as the elevator doors closed. Shirley and Jacey ran over to help Robert and Andrea wheel the patients into the OR's waiting for them. They had gotten a neurosurgeon from North-western to come in and look after the sub-dural to Andrea's immense relief. Now she could focus on her aneurysm patient. Andrea ran to change into her scrubs, leaving her clothes where they fell. There was no time to be tidy about it, this guy was dying.

Robert got the other patient settled with Dr Peters and went to the observation room in the OR where Andrea was operating. He felt useless with neuro patients – the one group of people he couldn't help. He was an excellent surgeon, but being a neurosurgeon required many years of specialised training, to the exclusion of all other types of surgery. He watched as she opened the man's skull in a matter of minutes and went to work clipping off the artery that had burst. She had to get it right the first time otherwise the patient was screwed. She located the source of the bleeding and Shirley handed her the aneurysm clip that had been loaded. Andrea double checked everything and quickly applied the clip. He could see the flow of blood stop immediately and saw Andrea visibly relax. 'God she's good' he thought. Just at that moment, Andrea looked up and saw him standing there watching her. 'Shit' he thought, feeling like a deer caught in headlights. He had tried to stay on the edge of the window, but obviously that wasn't enough. He turned and left the observation room, and headed back to his office.

Andrea watched the flow of blood stop and let out the breath she had been holding. 'Thank God' she thought even though she wasn't religious. She saw a figure move out of the corner of her eye. She looked into the observation room and saw Romano standing there, arms folded, watching her. He suddenly realised she had seen him and quickly turned and walked out. A matter of minutes later; one of the scout nurses came in to give her a message to go to his office as soon as the patient was settled in recovery otherwise she was fired, along with the nurse who gave her the message. Shirley looked at her and raised her eyebrows.

"Any last requests before you go to your death?" Shirley joked as she helped Andrea close the wound.

"Very funny Shirley. Don't worry – I'll go as soon as I can" she told the nurse who gave her the message. The poor girl looked so worried about the prospect of Romano firing her. Andrea sighed and continued suturing. About half an hour later, she left the patient in Shirley's capable hands in recovery and headed towards Robert's office, mentally preparing herself for the onslaught. She walked though the first door of his office to find Brenda who gave her a solemn look. She rang though to Romano's desk and he came and opened the door.

"You can leave now Brenda" he ordered and she disappeared quickly, knowing not to argue.

He held the door open and let her go through before him. She walked in quickly and sat down, her heart beating so hard she was sure he could hear it.

Instead of going to his own seat behind his desk, Romano went and stood in front of her, leaning his backside on the desk to support his weight, arms folded. He looked down at her.

"Look, Robert, I'm sorry, I didn't hear......" she started.

"I don't want to hear any of your excuses" he interrupted, not yelling but quiet and measured, which in many ways was probably worse. "You were lucky today; we were able to get another surgeon, but if you had responded to your first page you would have been able to do both surgeries. You're also very lucky I haven't fired you ...yet. But make no mistake Dr Garrity, if this ever happens again, I will. Understood?"

She simply nodded, trying hard not to let the tears fall that were building up on her lower lids.

"Don't for one second think that because you wore a slutty dress and flirted with me over a dinner I took you to only because I felt sorry for you, that I would be a pushover - because I'm not" he said maliciously.

"Robert...I didn't....." she stammered.

"That's Dr Romano to you inside this hospital."

Again, Andrea just nodded her response, too afraid that she would start crying if she opened her mouth to speak.

"You can go now. Make sure that surgeon from North-western hasn't killed your other patient" he said as he walked around to sit behind his desk.

Andrea let herself out of his office and went straight into the other OR to make sure Dr Peters was doing fine. Luckily everything went well and he was just closing up as she walked in.

"How's everything in here? Need any help?" She asked half-heartedly.

"No, everything is fine in here. You look like you need a coffee" Dr Peter's replied, still suturing.

"Gee thanks" she said quickly before leaving. She just made it to the ladies locker room before she let the tears fall.

..................................................................................................................................................................

He couldn't believe he'd done it again. He had treated her like crap and he knew why.....it was easier to have her hate him than have to deal with the fact he was falling in love with her. Just like he did with Lizzie. What happened to Andrea that morning could have happened to any of them, hell, it had even happened to him. It also wasn't her fault she was the only neurosurgeon on – it was actually_ his_ fault. He had let the other guy have the holiday in the first place. His phone rang. It was Weaver wanting to know why Andrea hadn't answered her pager, that all three patients could have died, blah, blah, blah. Robert gleefully reminded her of the time _she _had left her pager at Doc Magoo's, resulting in the death of a Marfans patient and said something about how people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. That shut her up quickly. He replaced the phone; satisfied at having gotten one up on Weaver, and that he had stuck up for Andrea in a small way.

..................................................................................................................................................................

When Andrea had collected herself enough, she went down to the ER to find Susan. She was in the coffee room alone, thankfully.

"Hey...what's wrong" Susan said, clearly very concerned for her friend who had just burst into a fresh bout of tears.

"Romano just let me have it for not answering my pager this morning" she sobbed.

"Oh forget about him....he's a jerk. You know it, I know it and_ everyone_ knows it."

"No, you don't understand...." Andrea took a deep but shaky breath. "On Friday night after the community services committee meeting was cancelled, I was too tired to drive home and Romano offered to drive me. So that's why my car was still here."

"I was wondering why you had left it here" Susan said looking around for some tissues.

"Anyway, that guy you set me up with on Saturday bloody stood me up" she said, wiping her eyes.

"No way! I'm going to kill him....."

"And so, on my way home from the restaurant I was supposed to meet him at I ran into Romano sitting by the lake. We chatted for a little bit and I told him I got stood up, so he offered to take me to dinner to make me feel better." Susan listened intently. "So we went to dinner and it was amazing – not the food, though that was good – but _he_ was amazing, he was so sweet and nice and _sexy_." Susan looked at her like she was mad. "Seriously Susan he was totally different. There was definitely some sort of chemistry between us – all I wanted to do was take him home and shag him senseless."

"But you didn't....?"

"No - of course not. Anyway just now he told me that he only took me to dinner because he felt sorry for me and that me wearing a slutty dress and flirting with him wasn't going to make him go easy on me." Andrea burst into tears again. "I don't think he means it, he's just trying to make me feel bad because of this morning, like he's punishing me."

"I think that's exactly what he's doing. Look; there was another surgeon here before you came – Elizabeth Corday."

"I know, I mentioned to Romano that I had worked with an Elizabeth Corday in London and he told me she used to work here. Her husband worked in the ER."

"You worked with her in London?" Susan asked. "I was quite close to her husband, we were good friends."

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea. I remember you mentioning a colleague had died, but I didn't know you were such good friends."

"It's OK. Anyway, Romano was clearly _fond_ of her for a long time, even after she married Mark; and he made her working life pretty difficult because of that. He was obviously pissed off because he knew she would never date him, so he punished her. They ended up pretty good friends though, from what I could tell. Maybe he's doing the same thing to you."

"But he hasn't even asked me out or anything – I haven't had a chance to reject him" Andrea said, puzzled. Why were men so stupid when it came to women?

"Maybe he's beating you to the punch - he doesn't want to get hurt again."

"How do I find out if that's the case?"

"Call his bluff – just act like nothing happened, it'll drive him crazy.....so....what if he _was_ interested in you?" Susan asked coyly.

"Well, before today I probably _would_ have gone out with him, but now.....I don't know. I'm definitely attracted to him, well the Romano that was at dinner the other night anyway. Have you _seen_ those arms and shoulders of his; not to mention his butt? Amazing."

"So the baldness doesn't bother you?"

"No, I don't even notice it to be honest."

Susan laughed. "You know - I always thought he would be good in bed, sometimes you can just tell, short, bald men feel they have something to prove. Plus he's got that _feistiness_ about him. I just never thought anyone would be interested in him on a romantic level though."

"Believe me, neither did I. Why do I find a short, bald guy with nasty disposition _sexy _anyway?"

"Beats me" Susan said and they both cracked up laughing.

Neither of them noticed that Romano had been standing outside the coffee room door and heard the whole conversation.


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue!_

_I messed with the timeline again with characters – it's much more fun that way._

_Rating: R – here come the hormones!!_

**Chapter Six – Repair**

Romano stormed into the surgeon's lounge, looking for Andrea, even though it was very late. He found Shirley instead.

"Shirley!" He snapped. "Have you seen Dr Garrity?"

"I think she's getting changed Dr Romano, either that or she's left already" Shirley said, wondering what he was going to bullock Andrea about _this_ time.

He stormed out without another word. He knew he had to try to fix things. He wasn't going to let her slip away, especially now that he knew she _did _have feelings for him. How could he have played it so wrong? 'You're scared of getting hurt' he thought, his buried insecurities briefly surfacing. He should have known better, he knew she wasn't the type to be deliberately hurtful. He approached the women's change room and wondered how to handle the situation. He knocked on the door briskly.

"Come in...the door isn't locked you know." A woman's voice called out.

He wondered if it was Andrea - it certainly sounded like her. He pushed the door open and walked in. It was Andrea. She had her back to him and she was doing up her work slacks. She had no top on, just a beige lace bra. He stopped in his tracks. She turned around to see who had come in and stopped when she saw him, standing there for a few seconds before realising she didn't have a top on and quickly, though unsuccessfully, tried to cover her chest with her hands and arms. He awkwardly turned around to give her time to cover herself properly, feeling a familiar part of him start stirring.

"Can a help you _Dr Romano_" she said sarcastically, quickly putting her shirt on.

"Look, I may have been a little _harsh_ before in my office...." he began.

"Forget about it" she said, thinking of Susan's advice – just call his bluff, pretend it didn't affect her. "I know I should have my pager within earshot all the time. It won't happen again. Is that all?" She replied, curtly, yet politely, grabbing out her car keys and zipping up her bag. She was tired and wanted to go home.

He walked a little closer to her. "I don't apologise very often – well, ever, but I was way out of line. Especially with what I said about you on Saturday night..."

"Well, there's no need to worry Dr Romano, I won't be getting into the habit of securing any more pity dinners from you, and I certainly won't be wearing anything _slutty_ in your presence in future" she was starting to feel her resolve breaking down and she was getting upset again. She hated it when people thought they could treat others how they wanted, as long as they apologized later on, but at the same time she was falling for him, and that somehow excused his behaviour.

"You looked beautiful on Saturday Andrea. I was mad at you for not hearing your pager and I said what I knew would hurt you, because that's what I do - I hurt people." He stepped closer to her again and reached out and touched her cheek, and was shocked when she didn't move away. He swallowed hard. "I push people away before they can get too close, I always have. I knew I couldn't stand it if you didn't feel the same way as me."

"Because of what happened with Elizabeth?" She asked flatly. His hand dropped from her face.

"Honestly – yes" he said softly.

"So....why didn't you just ask how I felt, rather than being a prick?"

He answered by shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head. "So....would you risk been seen out in public with me again? On a real date?" He asked shyly, pushing some of her hair off her face and tucking it behind her ear.

"You mean a _non-pity_ date?" she said sarcastically, leaning forward and fiddling with one of his shirt buttons playfully.

"Andrea...."

"I'm joking Robert." She pretended to think for a minute, to keep him wondering whether she was going to let him off the hook. "I'll tell you what. I'm having a dinner party at my place on Saturday for Susan's birthday. Why don't you come along?" She thought it would be a good way to minimise the stress of a full on date, whilst knowing they could spend time together alone at the end of the night, plus there was the option that he could stay overnight if the need arose – and she hoped it would.

"That sounds great. So does that mean I'm forgiven?"

She answered him by leaning in and gently placing her lips on his, a quick, but nonetheless sexy kiss. She pulled away as quickly as she had begun and walked past him out the changing room door, leaving him standing there shocked.

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Robert and Andrea hardly got to see each other for the rest of the week as they were on opposite shifts. The only time she saw him was briefly on Friday night in the surgeon's lounge, just as she was coming on for night duty. She was making coffee when he came in to do the same. They paused and looked at each other for a few seconds before Andrea reached out her hand to take his coffee mug to fill it.

"Thanks" he said quietly as she handed him the full mug.

"Had a shit day?" She asked taking a mouthful of the warm liquid.

"Of course I have – I haven't seen you" he said standing close to her, cursing himself internally for saying something so cliché.

She blushed and smiled at him over her coffee mug. "Yes, and I've missed your sarcastic smart-ass remarks _terribly_" she said laughing.

"So...what time tomorrow night and should I bring anything?"

"Well, you could come early and help me cook if you would like, like about 5? I should have slept off my nights by then I hope. And no, you don't need to bring anything, but please leave your sarcasm at home."

He laughed at her last comment. "Sure, I'd love to help you. I'm actually a pretty good cook."

She gave him a sceptical look. "I'll take your word for it. By the way it's not a huge amount of people; just the usual bunch and we don't usually talk shop so you won't have to tolerate ER bullshit all night. Plus Neela and Dubenko will be there, so you won't be the only other surgeon."

The _last _thing he felt like was dealing with the 'everyone's retarded' crew, but if he needed to in order to spend time with her then that's what he would do. Besides, Susan wasn't so bad and Neela and Dubenko were only mildly annoying. Just then his pager went off, making them both jump.

"No rest for the wicked." He quickly gave her a kiss on the cheek and rushed out the door.

Andrea had that lovely butterfly feeling in her stomach. She was reassured by seeing him, and that he wasn't all weird with her after Monday. She finished her coffee made her way to the change room to get ready for her shift. Just as she came back out she spotted Romano walking back from the elevator with a patient, who was bleeding quite severely. When he spotted her, he gave her a quick wink which made her feel giddy and rushed the patient off to the OR where he would work his magic and save another life.

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Andrea woke at 3 on Saturday afternoon. She had gotten off duty at about 8 and had to stop for groceries, flowers and candles for Susan's party, meaning she didn't get to sleep till about 10. For the next two hours she did some house work and got ready for Robert who would be there at 5. She spent ages deciding what to wear, pulling almost all of her clothes out of the wardrobe and hating everything. Her dog, a Cavalier King Charles called Lucy, looked at her with an expression that read 'what the hell is wrong with you?' She made sure she had on sexy, but still functional pants and bra – just in case. She eventually decided on jeans, which was a given seeing as it wasn't a formal party, and a black satin camisole with a beige wrap jumper on top of it. She put in simple pearl earrings and pulled her hair into a loose bun. She sprayed on some perfume just as the doorbell rang. 'Jesus – he's here!' She quickly went down the stairs with Lucy close behind her, and stopped briefly at the door to compose herself before she opened the door. Robert was standing there with several bottles of champagne, despite her having told him he didn't need to bring anything. She smiled and tried to slow her heartbeat down to a more normal rate.

"Hey Robert! Come in" she moved backwards allowing him to walk past her. Andrea took his coat and put it in the coat closet. She quickly looked him up and down. He also wore jeans with a grey t-shirt and a black woollen zip up jumper on top. She had never seen him looking casual before and he looked good. She could also smell his cologne, he smelt wonderful. Lucy looked at him suspiciously before walking over tail wagging submissively and sniffing him. "She's very friendly so don't worry" she said, closing the front door.

"Yes, cause I was so worried about a little dog like her. What's her name?" He asked, bending down to pet her. She was a sweet little dog.

"Lucy."

"Cute" he said, standing up again. He looked around what he could see of her house. It was chic and elegant, like its owner. There was no unnecessary crap lying around, only things that were useful, but nonetheless stylish.

"Come through to the kitchen. You didn't need to bring champagne for the party – trust me, I have enough" she joked.

"It's not for the party - this is for now, so I can get you drunk and take advantage of you" he laughed, noticing her blush. "Where I come from, it's rude to go to someone's house without bringing something" he said seriously. She liked that he had the manners to do that.

She took the bottles from him and put them in the wine fridge to chill. He looked at her in a funny way. "What?" She asked nervously.

"You have a _wine fridge_?"

"What's wrong with that? I like my wine, I have quite a big collection, and with a proper fridge you can store it at the right temperature. White and sparkling in the top and red below."

For some reason he liked that she was anally retentive enough to have something like that. He looked around the rest of the kitchen. She had a huge 6 burner gas stove and oven, a marble bench for making pastry and a huge kitchenaid stand mixer. This was the kitchen of someone who liked to cook.

She pulled out a bottle of champagne she had already chilled and handed it to Robert to open while she got out a couple of glasses. While he was doing that, she busied herself getting some vases and flowers she bought earlier on. He handed a glass to her and he held his up. "To new beginnings" he said, winking at her. They both took a mouthful – it was fantastic champagne, and she hoped it would calm her down a bit. She took a deep breath.

"Are you OK?" he asked, looking concerned.

"I'm fine Robert" she paused. "I'm just....nervous" she said honestly. "I haven't met anyone I've liked as much as you for a long time....."

Robert put down his glass on the bench and moved in close to her. "I'm nervous too, so don't worry. Trust me, you couldn't possibly do anything wrong." He touched her cheek and leant in and kissed her forehead gently. He didn't want to rush anything. "So...what do we need to do first?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Well, I need to get the dining room ready and put out the flowers and candles....." she started, walking towards the dining room. She had a huge dining table with 10 seats, and the room had huge doors that in summer would open out to integrate the garden into the house. He helped her lay the table with the vases full of white flowers going down the centre alternating with large white candles in glass jars, leaving enough room for the dishes that would come out later. Once they were done it looked amazing. They made their way back to the kitchen so Andrea could start getting the food ready. She put some Norah Jones on her ipod player, which she thought would set the mood.

"Do you need me to do anything?" He asked, sitting on a stool at the bench where she was working.

"You can top up my glass and keep me company" she said through a smile. It was so comfortable having him there, like they had been doing this for years.

He watched her get all the ingredients ready and start preparing the meal. There was something mesmerizing about her like this, she clearly enjoyed cooking and she moved to the music, taking the occasional sip of champagne.

"I had no idea you were such a keen cook" he said, taking a mouthful of champagne.

"Actually....I always wanted to be a chef, but ended up in medicine because, well, I had the grades and that's what you do when you have excellent grades...you do medicine or law."

"You don't enjoy being a doctor?"

"Of course I do – I love it, but everyone has something else they would probably have liked to do. Don't you?"

"No. Never. Being a surgeon defines me totally" he said honestly.

"You certainly have the disposition for it" she giggled.

"OK, that's enough out of you – get cooking woman" he laughed and she threw a tea towel at him, which he caught before it hit its target.

She got the lamb roast in the oven, along with all the bits to go with it – potatoes, pumpkin and carrots. She chopped the green vegetables to go on the side and mixed the horseradish cream to go with the mini Yorkshire puddings and rare beef she made for entre. She picked up a large glob of it with her finger and held it in front of Robert's mouth.

"Try this, I like it really strong, but no one else does." He opened his mouth and she put her finger in it for him to lick the cream off. She underestimated how much this would turn her on. She imagined that tongue doing exactly that to another part of her body. He gently licked her finger clean, finding it hard – in more than one sense – to maintain control and stop himself from just dragging her to the bedroom.

"That's really good" he said, breathing heavily.

"Thanks" she said, moving back to her side of the bench.

She finished all the preparations for the meal just in time for everyone to start arriving. Susan got there first, giving Robert a stupid grin when she saw him.

"Don't worry you two. I'll tell everyone that I invited Romano – that way you won't have everyone harassing you OK?" she said.

"Stop sucking up Lewis" Robert said sternly.

Susan laughed. "I don't think _I'm _the one who's going to be doing the sucking tonight."

"OK that's enough!" Andrea said, grabbing her friends arm and dragging her to the kitchen. She poured her a glass of wine hoping that would shut her up.

"Oh relax - I'm only joking" Susan said, taking a gulp of wine.

Neela and Dubenko arrived next, which immediately made the three of them suspicious. As they went through to the dining room, Susan asked the other two if they thought they were sleeping together.

"Yep, they are" Andrea said. "They have been for months, but I don't know how open about it they are."

"Are you serious?" Robert and Susan said in unison.

"Yep, I walked in on them having sex in his office" she said matter-of-factly. "That's the only reason I know – so don't say anything OK?"

"Thank _God_!" Susan said. "We could feel the sexual tension between them all the way from surgery down to the ER."

"That is _awesome_" Robert said, having a new found appreciation for Dubenko and his taste in women.

"_Shut-up_ Robert" Andrea said laughing, whilst Susan went to join them in the dining room, desperately hoping to get some gossip.

He walked up behind her, pressing himself against her so she could feel how much she turned him on. "I guess we have a few months of incredible sex to catch up on to catch up with them" he whispered seductively in her ear.

The doorbell rang again and Andrea reluctantly moved away from Robert and opened the door to Morris, Pratt, Chen, Luka and Abby. "Hi guys!" She said, excited to see everyone. They all walked in and they stopped suddenly when they saw Robert. They looked at each other warily wondering what to do.

Susan jumped in to diffuse the situation. "Relax guys – I invited him. It's my party and I'll invite an asshole if I want to." They all laughed. "Come and get a drink."

Everyone sat around the dining table, drinking, eating and having a great time. The conversation flowed easily and everyone was surprised at how decent Romano was being, though they were sure that would all go out the window at work on Monday. They talked about their lives and experiences, the places they travelled to, past relationships and plans for the future; pretty much everything except work, which was nice. Neela and Dubenko were quite lovey-dovey with each other, so they had obviously decided to 'come out' as it were. It was really nice to see, and even though there was an age difference, they weren't going to let it ruin a good relationship. Andrea wondered if she and Robert would ever get to that stage, she was at least 10 years his junior, not that it bothered her, and considering he was actively pursuing her she assumed it didn't bother him either.

It was getting late and as everyone left they complimented Andrea on the food and thanked her for providing the venue.

"It was so much better than the sleazy clubs we usually go to" Abby slurred, as Luka tried to get her wine glass off her.

"Yeah, definitely. Thanks Andrea" Chen said. She noticed Chen and Pratt walk out hand in hand.

"No worries guys." 'Everyone's getting loved up' Andrea thought.

Susan was the last to go and gave Andrea a huge drunken hug almost pulling both of them over. Morris had to pull her up again.

"Don't worry, I'll get her home" he said, trying to get her into her coat and out the door.

"See you guys" Andrea said, closing the front door against the cold.

Andrea grabbed her wine glass and walked into her lounge room to see Robert looking over the books on her shelves.

"So are you going to tease me about what a nerd I am now" she said as he noticed all her books on fossils, dinosaurs and the universe.

"Luckily for you, I have most of these books too, so I wouldn't have a leg to stand on. You do know I'm going to have to be twice the asshole on Monday to make up for being nice tonight?"

"Oh yes, and I'm sure they were all aware of it too" she laughed. "I hope you had fun though, I really appreciate you being here" she said, putting her wine glass on the mantle and leaning against one of her book cases.

"It's not a problem. I guess they aren't so bad outside of work" he said. He liked being in her house, it was warm and lovely. He never wanted to go back to his huge house alone again.

They both stood there in silence for a few seconds before they lost control and rushed at one another, pressing their lips together passionately and wrapping their arms around each other. She felt the softness of his tongue against hers as he explored her mouth. Robert pushed her up against the bookshelves firmly holding on to her ass and grinding himself against her. Andrea moaned involuntarily into his ear as he moved his lips down to her neck, making his hardness twitch in response. She had never felt passion like this before in her life, and she just wanted to go crazy on it. She pulled away from him briefly and took his hand. She walked up the stairs and into her room at the end of the corridor. She turned on a lamp on her bedside table and turned to look at Robert. He was breathing heavily and didn't once take his eyes off her. She could see how aroused he was through his jeans. She slowly walked towards him. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to be there and doing this with her. He didn't have any expectations of the evening and how it would end, but he would be lying if he said he didn't want this to happen. He wrapped his arms around her, wanting her to feel how much he loved her, and that she wasn't just a one night shag. She started to unzip his jumper and she saw him swallow hard.

"Are you OK?"

"Yes, of course I am, how could I not be? I just want to make sure this is what you want."

"Robert...what I want is for you to make love to me" she said breathlessly.

"I would be happy to oblige" he said, closing his mouth over hers again.

He moved over to the bed, sitting down with her standing between his legs in front of him. He gently untied the wrap on her jumper, slipping it down her arms and threw it, not caring where it landed. He lifted the black satin camisole to kiss her firm stomach as he reached up to caress her breasts, causing her to moan loudly. She raised her arms and he stood to slip the camisole over her head, leaving her with just a bra and her jeans on. As he sat back down she lifted his shirt over his head, revealing his strong arms and shoulders which she moved her hands over.

"You have a _fantastic_ body" she said into his ear, squeezing his shoulders.

"Well, that's the first time I've ever been told that, but thanks." he joked. He reached forward and gently undid the button and zipper on her jeans and slowly sliding them down her legs, letting her hold on to him for balance as she stepped out of them. He slid his hands back up her legs and grasped her ass. She had an amazing figure. She pushed him back onto the bed and climbed on top, kissing him hard and reaching down to undo his jeans. She slipped them down and he wiggled out of them, taking his socks off as well, leaving just his boxers on. She slowly reached down into the waistband of his shorts and felt him, gasping when she felt how big he was.

"So....._that's _why you're called Rocket" she laughed against his mouth.

He laughed gently "I'll just save my dignity and say: yes, _that's_ why I'm called Rocket."

She moved down his body, taking his shorts with her. Once she slipped them off, she moved slightly up and took him into her mouth, making him moan loudly. He gently stroked her hair as she worked her magic on him. It wasn't something she did all the time, but doing it to him really turned her on.

He was losing his mind. Women rarely performed this act on him, but to have _her _do it was incredible. He had no idea she was so uninhibited. He gently pulled her away reluctantly, but if he didn't the whole thing would be over way too soon. She moved back up to kiss him. "Sorry, I just want this to last and you're so good, it wouldn't if you kept doing that."

"That's OK, as long as you liked it."

"Well...I _guess_ it was alright" he joked. She pretended to look offended. "Actually it was fucking amazing"he growled into her ear, flipping her over onto her back with him on top of her. He reciprocated the favour, kissing the most intimate part of her. 'God I can't believe how _good_ he is at that' she thought, grasping the bed sheets and trying to keep her legs from trembling. He felt her release and heard her moan his name loudly, surprised that it didn't take very long.

"God Robert – that was fantastic. I can't remember the last time I came that hard" she said, trying to catch her breath. He moved back up her body, quickly wiping his mouth before kissing her. He couldn't wait any longer and he slowly pushed himself into her, both of them savouring the feeling, knowing that the first time was always the most intense. He held her close and moved slowly in and out of her, wanting it to last as long as possible. He slowly built up the speed and bit her shoulder gently, muffling his groan as he had his own release. They both lay there for a few moments, both physically and emotionally exhausted.

"Wow" he gasped.

"You can say that again."

"Wow."

She laughed and snuggled into him. He wrapped his arms around her, never wanting to let go. They both fell asleep within minutes, and both had a smile on their face.


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue!_

**Chapter Seven – The next Day**

Robert slowly opened his eyes, having those thoughts you always have first thing after you wake up: What day is it? And: Do I have to go to work today? Luckily the answers were: Sunday and no. He then realised where he was and that there was a particularly beautiful and sexy woman snuggled up to him and he smiled. They had woken up twice more during the night and made love again, once in the kitchen after a 2am snack. He was exhausted, but in a good way. A _great_ way. He hoped he could spend the day with her, maybe another night if he was lucky – not for the sex, just so he could wake up with her. She stirred slightly and opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"What time is it?" She asked, her voice sleepy.

"Ummm...." he started, lifting his head to look at the clock on her bedside table. "8 o'clock" he said, dropping his head back onto the pillow.

"Argh....why do I always wake up early when I can actually sleep in?"

"It's because there's such a sexy man in your bed – you can't help yourself" he laughed.

"Oh...that _must_ be it" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him, breathing in that great smell men have in the morning – a mixture of his own man smell and cologne. "So...do you have any plans today?" She asked, hoping the answer was no, she just wanted to spend the day lounging around with him.

"Well, I should pop into work and look at some papers, maybe go for a run....." Andrea looked at him with a slightly hurt expression. "I'm joking. I'm yours for the day.....if you want."

"That would be really nice" she said quietly, gazing at him. He could feel himself getting aroused again. The phone rang, breaking the silence – and the mood – in the room. Andrea quickly shuffled over to the side table and answered it.

"Hello?" She paused, waiting to hear who it was. "Susan....I'm _not_ talking about this now – it's 8 in the morning – don't you have a hangover to nurse?" Andrea rolled her eyes at him, and then laughed at something Susan said. "It's none of your business....." She laughed again. "OK, yes, yes and _fantastic. _Look, I've got to go....love you too." She hung up the phone and groaned.

"Glad to see I'm the source of such great gossip" he joked.

"Hey, we're girls, it's what we do."

"So what was 'yes, yes and fantastic' in answer to?"

"Well.....'was he arrogant?', 'did he have a small penis?' and 'how was the ice cream you ate to block out the memory of sleeping with him?'" She laughed.

"Very funny" he said, feigning hurt.

"Well, maybe you weren't so arrogant...." she joked.

"Well, I seem to remember you enjoying my 'small' penis on more than one occasion last night – oh, and early this morning" he said, nuzzling her neck. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so great. It was funny – he had spent so many years imagining doing this with Elizabeth that he never thought he might meet someone who was actually _better_ than her, someone more beautiful, nicer, smarter _and _who didn't dick him around, who wanted him for him. He had become fixated on Elizabeth for such a long time and it had blinded him to other prospects. Though he didn't realise it at the time, her leaving Chicago was probably the best thing that happened to him.

"What are you thinking about? You look a million miles away" Andrea asked.

"Nothing important" he answered evasively.

"I'm going to go and have a shower – can't lie in bed _all _day." Robert pouted. "You can join me if you like." Robert jumped up immediately and followed her into her en-suite, admiring the view from behind. "Don't look at my wobbly bottom" she winged, trying to cover it with her hands.

"What?! You're crazy! You have a fantastic body – not to mention a perfect ass" he caught up with her, hugging her from behind and kissing her neck. "Why is it women can never see how hot they are?"

"Because men are superficial bastards" she joked, turning on the shower which was more than large enough for the two of them.

Robert joined her in the shower, just enjoying watching her doing something as normal as washing her hair. She went to hand him the shampoo, laughing. "Very funny" he said. He quickly washed himself and jumped out, grabbing a towel. "I'm going to put some coffee on" he told her. He dried himself off quickly and but his clothes from yesterday back on and headed down the stairs. When he reached the kitchen he flipped the kettle on and looked for mugs, which he eventually found above the sink. Looking around, he had flashbacks of Andrea jumping him and them making love on the kitchen bench, which made him smile. He had never done that before, he was unexpectedly shy around women he actually liked and was too worried about scaring them off to suggest anything too kinky. Most of the women he 'dated' were bimbos and hardly interested in having a good sex life with him. He looked around for the coffee which he found in the fridge, along with the bread. 'How weird. Must be an Australian thing' he thought. Just as he finished making coffee, she joined him in the kitchen.

"What do you want for brekkie?" She asked. "I'm just going to have vegemite toast" she said, taking the bread out of the fridge.

"Uh, plain toast is fine with me" he said, amused. "What's with the coffee and bread in the fridge?"

"Oh...we just put everything in the fridge because it gets so hot in Australia. It's just habit I guess."

She buttered his toast and handed it to him, then made her own, putting a generous helping of vegemite on it, which made Robert squish his nose up in disgust. This did not escape Andrea.

"Well, have you ever _tried_ it?" She asked defensively. He shook his head. She handed out a slice of her toast for him to take a bite. He did so immediately regretting it.

"How the hell can you eat that?" He said, disgusted, trying hard to swallow what he had bitten off. Andrea laughed.

"I guess it's something you have to grow up on" she said, quickly devouring her toast. To her, there was nothing better than vegemite on hot toast - or crumpets, but she couldn't get them here.

"Do you miss home?" He asked suddenly.

"Yes I do, but I like living here. It suits for now and as it turns out I might have a good reason to stay" she said, winking at him and hoping that wouldn't scare him off.

"What do you miss the most?"

"That's a long list" she laughed. "Um....the beach, over 300 days of sunshine a year, Aussie rules football, tim tams, eucalyptus drops, my mum and going to my country house....not necessarily in that order." She made her way into the lounge room and sat on the couch, where he joined her and sat in silence, occasionally sipping his coffee. Lucy was asleep on one end of the couch and looked up disgusted that her sleep had been interrupted.

Andrea looked over at him, wondering why he had gone quiet. 'God, I shouldn't have said anything about having a good reason to stay in Chicago' she thought. "Are you OK?" She was worried. She had a feeling she was about to hear something she didn't want to.

He wondered how honest with his feelings he should be, he didn't want to scare her off, but he desperately needed her to know how he felt about her. She deserved to know, and _he_ needed to know how she felt. Until then he had blocked out the fact that she was from the other side of the planet, but he realised it could cause a lot of problems. "Look, Andrea...I'm not sure what your long term plans are, and I'm not foolish enough to think colleagues can have a romantic involvement without certain...entanglements...."

"Robert, you don't need to say anything, it was a one night thing for you and that's fine. I won't mention it to anyone...." she was close to tears.

"No, you've misunderstood me" he saw she was upset and shuffled close to her. "I want you to know last night....and this morning....was not a one night thing for me, and even though it might get complicated, I want to be with you" he leaned in and kissed her softly.

"I want to be with you too" she said softly.

They spent the rest of the day reading, watching telly, eating and making love. That night they ordered in Thai food and watched _American Idol_, making fun of the people auditioning. It was great.

"So what time are you on tomorrow?" He asked.

"I've got a craniotomy at 8am" she said.

"Gee, what a great way to start the day – cutting into someone's skull."

"Yep – sure is" she laughed.

"You're such a _surgeon_" he reached across to kiss her playfully. He was interrupted by the sound of his mobile ringing. "If that's Weaver telling me I need to come in, I'll kill her." He jumped up to answer it, looking at the screen. It was an international number he didn't recognise. "Hello?" He said cautiously.

"Robert?" A woman's voice asked in a clipped English accent. He knew that voice. His heart skipped a beat.

"Yes, it's me."

"It's Elizabeth....how are you?"

"Fine." He kept his answers simple – he didn't want Andrea to know he was talking to the woman who he once thought was the love of his life.

"Look, things aren't really working out here in London. I was wondering if you had any positions vacant?" Elizabeth asked hopefully.

"Why don't you call me tomorrow and I'll see what I can do."

"Um...OK, thanks. It's good to hear your voice."

"You too. I'll talk to you tomorrow OK? Bye."

"Bye Robert" she whispered.

He hung up his mobile. 'Shit, shit, shit!' he thought. He felt he needed to help Elizabeth and give her a job – she lost her husband after all, but he knew Andrea knew Elizabeth and she knew how he had felt about her.

"Everything OK?" Andrea asked. She didn't want to ask _who _it was, it wasn't any of her business really.

"Just bloody Edson, going on about some bowel resection in the morning."

"Argh, that guy is _such a pain in the ass._"

"Well Andrea, if that's the case then you're doing it wrong" he joked, trying to take his mind off the phone call.

She hit him playfully. "You're so _gross_" she said, laughing. They kissed passionately, and slowly made their way back to her bedroom.


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue!_

_I know some of you may not like the reappearance of Elizabeth, but have some faith!!_

**Chapter Eight – Reappearance**

Andrea walked through the doors of trauma one, snapping on her gloves. "What have we got?"

"This guys a mess. MVA, flail chest, abdominal bleeding and severe head injury" Luka said as he tried to put in a chest tube. Andrea got to work assessing his head injury. It was bad and she needed to get him to surgery as soon as possible.

"Right, he needs a craniotomy, like NOW!" She went to disconnect the patient to move to the OR, but Luka stopped her.

"We're still waiting on Romano to assess the rest of him. You might need to do a tandem op – he won't survive a craniotomy with abdominal injuries like this" Luka said. She knew he was right. They tried to stabilize the patient as best they could while they waited. About 3 minutes later – a long time considering this patient was about to die – Robert stormed into the room.

"Oh look who decided to join us" Andrea said, annoyed.

"Shut it Dr Garrity.......Luka spit it out" Robert clipped as he started to sort the patient out. Luka raised his eyebrows at her and proceeded to fill Romano in on what was going on. "Right he needs a laparotomy NOW!"

"No...he needs a craniotomy NOW!" Andrea argued.

"You....Abby....call the OR and tell them we need to do a tandem – head and abdomen" he said, disconnecting the patient from the ER monitoring and they moved the patient quickly to the elevator. Andrea ventilated the patient and looked up to see Robert writing something in the patients chart. It had been several days since they had been alone together and Andrea's feelings were starting to smart. He had told her he wanted to be with her but since they parted ways on Monday morning they hadn't really spoken. Granted, she had been busy as hell, and he probably was too, but was it so hard to send a text message or something?

The elevator doors opened and they wheeled the patient inside. "I'm going to need time to put this guy in a Mayfield clamp" she said, trying to prompt some conversation.

"Sure, do what you have to – just make it quick" he looked up at her and winked. The doors to the surgical floor opened and Shirley met them, taking the patient so they could go scrub. As they turned on their taps and started scrubbing, Robert looked over at her, seemingly reading her mind. "Look, I've just had a really shit week so far....don't read too much into it" he said quietly.

"Would it kill you to make a phone call or send a text?" She said icily.

"I _did_ try to call several times. You never answered and I actually have no idea how to use my mobile – let alone send text messages." Why the hell did women fret so much? _This_ was the part he hated about relationships. The truth was he also had lots of things on his mind. The janitorial staff were going on strike and Weaver was threatening to close the ER to trauma unless he sorted it out, Edson was refusing to work with Babcock for some reason and Elizabeth would be back in the States tomorrow to start work the following week. He had spoken to her again when he got into work on Monday and sorted out a position for her. He was unsure about how he felt about her coming back to County. He was worried his old feelings would come to the surface again and he had this strange feeling like he was cheating on her with Andrea, like he was being disloyal.

They both finished scrubbing and made their way into the OR, she went to work on the head and he went to work on the abdomen. They had never operated together before and to her it was as intimate a thing as a couple could do – how many couples could save a life together? She knew he was a good surgeon, but she had never realised just how good he was. Within minutes he had repaired the liver laceration that was causing most of the internal bleeding, and she noticed how even though he was generally rude to the staff - especially Shirley who bared the brunt of his nastiness – they still had this quiet respect and regard for him when he was operating.

He looked over at her steady hands trying to stop the bleeding from around the patient's brain. One wrong move and she could screw this man up for life. It took balls to do that sort of surgery and deal with the repercussions of it. It was one thing to lose a patient, it was another to think you have saved them, only to find they've gone blind and can't talk or can't remember their wife when they wake up from surgery.

They both finished their parts of the surgery at around the same time, unscrubbing and making their way to the surgeon's lounge for a much needed coffee. Robert was pleased to find the room empty. While Andrea was pouring their drinks, he walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her, inhaling her scent. She smiled and grabbed one of his strong hands to kiss it. "When can I see you again?" He asked.

"Well, I'm not really free until the weekend. There's a function I've been invited to at the Natural History Museum on Saturday night with some lectures by Richard Dawkins. Do you want to come with me"

"You want to go to lectures on the weekend?"

"Hey! I love all that stuff – you saw my book collection."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure, I'll come with you – but only if you let me buy you dinner afterward."

"I suppose so" she said, feigning exasperation. "By the way – it's black tie." She was imagining him in a tux when her pager went off. "It's the ER again. Damn. See you later." She gave him a quick kiss and was out the door.

..................................................................................................................................................................

The elevator doors to the ER opened to show Susan standing there, hands in her pockets. "Where's the emergency?" Andrea asked.

"Right here – so tell me, what's going on with Romano" Susan said, linking arms with her friend.

"You paged me down here to _gossip_?"

"Yep, sure did. It's really slow today and I haven't spoken to you since Sunday morning – and by the way you were not very forthcoming."

"Did you think I was going to give you a detailed account with him still there? Besides, all you asked was whether I had been to that new bar near the lake and whether it was good or not. Romano assumed we were talking about him of course. Men think everything is about them."

They made their way into the ER lounge where Susan grabbed her coat and offered Andrea her spare. "Let's go to Doc Magoo's, it sucks trying to gossip in here – someone always hears you – usually Weaver." Andrea laughed and followed Susan across the road. Once they sat down and ordered some lunch, Susan looked at her expectantly. "So.....?"

"So what?" Andrea blushed.

"So, what happened with Romano – and why did you ruin my birthday dinner by inviting him?"

"Oh, he wasn't _that _bad." Susan raised her eyebrows. "Well, he came and found me late last Monday to apologise for being an asshole and he asked me to dinner...told me I was beautiful etc etc. I decided to invite him on Saturday so there wasn't the pressure of being one on one, and to see how he was going to be with my friends – sneaky I know. Anyway, we ended up spending the whole weekend together."

"Did you sleep with him?" Susan asked, smiling.

Andrea nodded, blushing. "It was _fantastic_" she whispered.

"I told you so – short men have something to prove" Susan said, sounding like a wise old woman. Andrea smiled.

"It wasn't that he had something to prove...he was just...really good. He's got a fantastic body – I've got no idea how he gets the time to work out, but he's _so sexy_."

"So, is there truth behind the rumour about his nickname?" Susan asked, smirking.

"That's none of your business" she laughed.

"Well, that says it all. I'm really happy for you. I never thought of Romano as good relationship material, but if you like him he must be – on some level."

"So what's going on with your fire-fighter?"

"It's a deep and meaningful relationship based totally on sex" both of them laughed uproariously, causing everyone to turn to look at them.

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It was late on Saturday afternoon and Robert had just gotten out of the shower, wrapping his towel around his waist. He was due to pick Andrea up at 6:30, so he had plenty of time to get ready. He looked at himself briefly in the large bathroom mirror. Generally he was pretty happy with his appearance, he always found the time to work out no matter how tired he was, and it paid off. He was just about to start shaving when he heard the doorbell ring. He knew it couldn't be Andrea because she didn't know where he lived. He quickly bounded down the stairs. When he opened the door, he saw the last person he ever expected.

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Andrea was getting ready in her bedroom and was running a little late. She had spent the day shopping with Susan and watching girly films with some champagne. Susan was still downstairs watching 'The Holiday.' Andrea had bought a beautiful cream Stella McCartney bustier dress and a cream satin and ostrich feather Jason Wu coat to go with it. It was sexy enough to get Robert going while being tasteful enough for the function. She heard her phone ring and called out to Susan to answer it for her. A few moments later Susan appeared at her door, phone in hand.

"It's for you – it's Robert" she winked at Andrea.

"Thanks" Andrea mouthed before Susan turned and left the room to give her some privacy.

"Hey sexy, what's up?"

"Andrea, look, I'm not feeling very well. I'm not going to be able to make it tonight."

Her heart sank. "Oh, OK. Do you want me to come over and look after you instead? I give excellent sponge baths...."

Robert laughed gently. "Um, no, you go ahead. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Ok, bye" she said, disappointed.

"Bye."

Andrea sat on her bed as Susan walked back in. "Everything OK?" She asked.

"Ah, yes, he just can't make it tonight, he's not well."

"That sucks. Do you want me to come with you instead? I know I'm not as sexy as Romano but I'll be good company"

"Sure, that would be fun" Andrea said, trying not to sound as disappointed as she was.

"Excellent! I'm going to have to borrow something to wear though..." Susan said, already raiding Andrea's closet.

Andrea laughed "Sure, knock yourself out."

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Robert hung up the phone feeling a huge amount of guilt, and turned back to the person who had been at his door and was now sitting on his couch with a glass of wine. Elizabeth Corday.

"You really don't have to cancel your plans to keep me company Robert" Elizabeth said through a few sniffles.

"It was just a pool night at the pub, nothing important" he lied.

He walked over to sit on the couch opposite her, glass of wine in hand. He had left her briefly to run upstairs to put jeans and a sweater on, feeling very exposed in just his towel, not that Elizabeth seemed to mind. He noticed her very appreciative glance at his chest and six-pack and noticed her blush. It was a look he had wanted to see from her for more years than he cared to count. That was before she burst into tears. He stood there unsure about what to do, but managed to usher her inside.

"I'm so sorry for just showing up and being such a _girl_....I'm just feeling really lost at the moment and needed to talk to someone who knows me. Who knew Mark" she said through fresh tears.

He got up and went to sit on the couch next to her. Sitting his wine on the coffee table, he leaned in and hugged her. He had wanted to touch her like this for so long and now that he was he found he felt absolutely nothing but concern for her. He knew in that moment that he was definitely over her.

"Thanks Robert" she said, wiping her eyes.

They spent the rest of the evening talking about what had been going on since she had been gone. She talked about living back in England and he talked about Andrea, who Elizabeth remembered well.

"Andrea's a lovely woman Robert – even though she's Australian." Robert looked at her quizzically. "You know the Australian's and us Brits have a long history of hating each other. It's all in good fun really. Seriously though, I can't recall you ever being in a relationship. I remember you being with some blonde at my wedding and then some other blonde...Nikki...who met you at work once, but never an actual normal girlfriend"

"Yeah, well, you know how picky I am" he joked. "Didn't think I was still pining for you did you?"

"Of course not – well, I hoped not anyway." She looked at her watch. "God, it's after 11. I'd better go. I'll see you at work on Monday."

He got up to open the door for her and help her into her coat. "See you then."

"Thanks again for tonight Robert – it was great to catch up." She walked out the door and got into her car and was gone.

He wondered if Andrea was home yet or still at the function. He tried her phone. No answer. 'I guess I'll speak to her tomorrow' he thought, disappointed. He went to bed thinking about what they were doing this time last week and hoped he would get to see her soon.

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It was just after 10pm and Andrea and Susan made their way back to Andrea's car.

"What a great night – and we can still get home in time for re-runs of _Sex and the City_" Susan joked.

"Thanks for coming with me – I hate going to those things on my own. I always get hit on by virginal nerds in their forties."

Susan laughed. "I think they thought we were together or something."

"I don't care what they thought, though I'm not really into blondes Susan...no offence." They both laughed.

"No...you prefer baldies."

"Speaking of which, I'm just going to pop round his place to make sure he's all right."

"Sure, seeing Romano sick might convince me that he is actually human after all."

"Very funny" Andrea said, and dialled the OR's number, hoping to get Shirley.

"OR – Shirley speaking."

"Shirley...its Andrea. Look...this might sound weird, but can you give me Dr Romano's home address please?"

"I really shouldn't give out that sort of personal information to a colleague" Shirley said, clearly through a smile.

"I know...." Andrea began.

"Well, as long as you don't paper his house....." Shirley gave her the address.

"Thanks Shirley." Andrea hung up and made the turn for Robert's street.

As she pulled up outside the address, she noticed a car parked out the front, but thought nothing of it. There were lights on so she assumed he was still up. As they both got to the front door they noticed laughing coming from inside. One was definitely Robert's and the other was from a woman. They both froze, looking at each other not knowing what to do. Susan put one of her fingers to her lips indicating that Andrea should be as quiet as possible. She snuck down on all fours and made her way over to the large lounge room window. Andrea did the same and followed her.

"Susan, we're not in a Nancy Drew novel. What are you doing?" Andrea whispered.

"I'm finding out why someone so sick he had to cancel your date seems to be having a jolly old time" Susan whispered back. They both lifted their heads up enough to just see inside and they froze. It was Robert, not looking sick at all, but laughing with....Elizabeth Corday.

"You have _got _to be kidding me!" Susan said, still keeping her voice low.

"Oh my God!" Andrea said, pulling her head back down. They stayed there for a few more moments, hoping to hear any detail as to what Robert and Elizabeth were talking about, but all they could hear were murmurs interrupted with bouts of laughing. "Let's get out of here, before the neighbours see us and call the police." The both crawled most of the way back to the car and once inside sat in silence for a moment.

"I'm so sorry Andrea" Susan said, genuinely upset for her friend.

"Yeah....me too" she replied sadly.


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ER characters so please don't sue!_

_Thanks for the reviews!!_

**Chapter Nine – Not what it looks like**

Susan planned to spend the night at Andrea's, feeding her ice cream and champagne. "I'm OK Susan, I only dated the guy for like a week and only slept with him....well....like 10 times, but it was only one night...and...well...the whole next day...and that night" she tried to sound unfazed, but was torn apart inside. What the hell was Elizabeth doing back in Chicago? And why did he feel the need to lie to her about why he couldn't come tonight? The only reason he would lie was because he had something to hide. She thought about what they were probably doing at his house...in his bedroom...in his bed. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the thoughts. Susan was on the phone to Abby.

"Yep, call them, get them round here, like, now and bring your pj's and supplies."

"What are you doing?" Andrea asked through a mouthful of ice cream.

"Getting the girls round – I know they don't know about Romano, but you need a strong team of support at the moment, plus if they can help make his life hell in the ER then we can get our own back in a small way. We're going to have an old-fashioned slumber party."

"I love you Susan" she said through fresh tears. Susan walked over and hugged Andrea.

"I love you too."

Within half an hour Abby, Chen and Neela were at Andrea's door with bags full of comfort food and their overnight bags.

"What's going on?" Abby asked. She had no idea about why they were called around. "Did something happen back home?" She asked, sounding worried.

"No, nothing like that. Sit down guys, I've got a bombshell to drop on you." They all changed into their pj's, filled their glasses with wine, opened ice cream and chocolate and sat down ready to listen. "Um...I've kind of, well I _was_...um...dating Romano." They all stopped chewing and drinking and looked at her with wide eyes. "Only for a week or so, but it was pretty full on."

"So _that's _why he was at Susan's party..." Abby said, putting the pieces together. "So I take it something bad has happened?"

"Well, we were supposed to go to a function together tonight and then go out to dinner but he called earlier and said he was unwell and couldn't make it. So I went with Susan instead. Anyway, on the way home I thought we could stop by his place to make sure he was OK and when we got to his front door we could hear laughing, which we thought was odd, seeing as he was supposed to be sick. So...Susan and I kind of...sneaked around and looked in the lounge room window." They were all leaning forward to hear what was going to come next. "And, he was in there drinking wine and laughing with Elizabeth Corday." The all had their mouths open in shock.

Susan continued. "We all know how he felt about Elizabeth when she was at County...."

Neela looked really mad. "I can't believe he lied to you so he could spend the night with _her_. That asshole."

"Yeah, totally. Why is she even back here anyway?" Chen added.

"I don't know – I actually knew Elizabeth in London, I used to work for her father. When I was there she had just bought a house and was pretty settled. Maybe she's just visiting her step daughter or something."

'God, first that woman took Mark from me and now she's taken Robert from Andrea' Susan thought bitterly. "Well, don't worry I'll find out all I can on Monday" Susan said defensively.

"So...." Abby started. "How was he in bed?" They all laughed loudly, Chen wolf-whistled.

"Unfortunately for me now...he was _fantastic_, but I'm sure Elizabeth is finding that out as we speak." They all looked at Andrea sadly.

They spent the night talking, eating, drinking and watching the entire series of _Sex and the City_, from the first episode to the last. Andrea frequently got told that she looked just like Charlotte. They all had a lot of fun and Andrea briefly forgot how sad she was.

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Robert woke to the sun shining into his bedroom. He hated not waking up next to her. Even though they had only spent two nights together, he never wanted to not wake up with her again. He looked over at his clock to see if it was a vaguely sensible time to call her yet. 9am. It was probably best to wait for another hour, she was probably out late last night. He made his way down to the kitchen to put coffee on and went outside to pick up his Sunday paper. He noticed his flower bed outside the lounge room window was trampled. 'Bloody neighbours dogs' he thought, going back inside. He dutifully waited until 10 and dialled her number, his heart beating fast at the prospect of talking to her. The phone rang 3 times before someone picked up.

"Hello, Susan speaking."

"Um, hi, Susan?" She was _still _there? She must have stayed the night at Andrea's and thinking about it, probably went to the function with her. "It's Robert, can you put Andrea on?"

"No, I can't – she's not here." She sounded icy.

"Oh, do you know when she will be back?"

"No I don't know." she sounded exasperated. "I'll let her know you called. Oh...and Robert?"

"Yes?"

"Say hi to Elizabeth for me" Susan added sarcastically and hung up the phone. Robert stood there with the hand piece in his hand, frozen.

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Andrea listened to Susan on the phone, she was so lucky to have good friends like that. Susan was ready to go to war for her, figuratively speaking. She knew he would call her this morning to either pretend nothing happened or to break up with her but Susan won the first round. She knew they were all going to help her get through this, dignity intact.

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Robert was wracking is brains trying to figure out how Susan knew about Elizabeth. No one even knew she was coming back to County to work. Judging by how icy she was with him, she also seemed to know that Elizabeth was at his house when he should have been on a date with Andrea. Then he thought about the battered flowerbed – could they have been checking up on him? 'That's crazy' he thought, neither Andrea nor Susan knew where he lived. But they _could _have found out. Why would they be snooping around his house though? He thought about going around to her place to try to explain but he knew it would be a two on one battle – him versus Andrea _and _Susan, and quite frankly, it wasn't any of Susan's business. No, he needed to do it one on one and decided he would talk to her at work the next day. He was mad at himself – the whole reason he didn't tell her the truth – which was that a friend of his needed him – was because she would assume the worst, and she would probably be right to seeing as that friend was after all, Elizabeth. The woman he used to love.

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Andrea felt extremely nervous walking into the hospital the next morning. She wondered how long it would be until she ran into him. She didn't have to wait long to find out. She was paged almost immediately to the ER for a MVA and walked into trauma 1 where Susan, Chen and Abby were all working on one woman. It was surprisingly similar to the guy Robert and Andrea had operated on the week before - severe head and abdominal injuries, but this woman was clearly brain dead. Just after Andrea started her assessment, Robert walked into the trauma room. The mood changed immediately. You could feel the tension. He looked up to see the four women looking at him menacingly. It was like walking into a lion's den, and at any minute they were about to tear him apart. It only got worse when they saw Elizabeth walking in behind him.

"Hi everyone! It's so good to see you all again" Elizabeth said cheerfully, her smile disappearing when the sentiment was not returned. Susan and Chen made no attempt to hide their glare at Elizabeth. Andrea pretended to be extremely interested in the patients chart.

"Well guys, nothing I can do here" Andrea said signing the chart and walking out. She didn't even glance in his direction.

Susan overcame her personal feelings and filled Robert in on the patient's condition. Even though the patient was brain dead, they could hopefully harvest some organs. Elizabeth stood there looking perplexed. As Robert and Elizabeth made their way back to the elevator Elizabeth asked "What the hell was _that _all about?"

Once the elevator doors closed and they were alone he told her. "Look on Saturday night I was actually supposed to go out with Andrea, but you were so upset, so I cancelled. I didn't tell her the truth though; I told her I was unwell." Elizabeth looked at him disapprovingly. "I know, I know, but if I told her it was _you_ at my door all upset then she would have assumed the worst. She knows how I used to feel about you" he said quietly. "Somehow they found out about you being there and that I lied to Andrea."

"Robert, you just have to explain the truth to her. She'll understand. Do you want me to talk to her?"

"No, I need to do it myself. I just need to get some time alone with her."

"Well, if you need my help just ask. It is partially my fault."

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When Andrea next saw Robert he was screaming at a group of petrified medical students. "Do you need me to come and wipe your asses for you too?" He screamed. They all shook their heads and scooted off, nervously looking behind them to make sure he didn't follow them. He then yelled at the nurses around him. "What the hell are you all looking at?! If I were you I'd get some work done before I decide who is dispensable!" He stopped and stared at her, his face softening as she walked towards the nurse's station with a pile of charts she had been working on. She couldn't avoid him forever and she refused to let their situation affect her work. She was better than that. Just as she put the charts down, he grabbed her arm roughly. "You – my office – now" he said sternly, pulling her along by the arm. She was genuinely frightened by how strong he was – and how angry he seemed to be. Once they were in his office with the door closed and locked he turned to glare at her.

"Exactly what do you think you're playing at?" He said through clenched teeth and hands on hips.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" She said, holding her head high.

"Look, I lied to you on Saturday because I knew you would assume the worst if I told you Elizabeth was there. I promise you, nothing happened. I spent most of the night talking about you as a matter of fact. She was upset, she's feeling really lost at the moment."

"Yes and I'm sure you just _loved _being the one she ran to for help."

"Andrea, she doesn't really know anyone else here - besides your little girl pals of course. You've got a nice little coup there by the way."

"They're my friends. What did you expect?"

"I expected you to have some faith in me" he said sadly, taking a step closer to her. His eyes stared straight into hers. "Exactly how did you find out anyway?"

"I got your address from your personal file" she lied. She knew he would fire Shirley out of spite if she said that was who she got the address from. "Susan and I decided to stop by your house on the way home to make sure you were alright. We heard laughing and looked through your window to see why someone so ill was having such a great time." Despite her best efforts, a few tears dripped down her cheeks. "We weren't deliberately snooping Robert."

"No, just accidentally snooping."

"Look, I don't really have anything else to say to you. We had some fun last weekend; let's just leave it at that OK?"

"So you want this to be over, just like that?" He asked, pointing his finger between the two of them.

"I don't like being lied to Robert. It's a deal breaker for me. I've been lied to and cheated on enough times" she said slowly. She went to walk to the door, but he was standing in front of it. He stopped her, putting one of his hands on her cheek and leaned in the kiss her softly. She breathed in his smell, knowing she would miss it.

"The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you Andrea...." he hesitated for a moment. "I love you."

She backed away from him, crying freely now. "Well, you did. You're free to have her now. Knock yourself out" she said.

"I don't want her – I want you. She's nothing to me now" he said, tears in his own eyes.

Andrea shook her head and walked out of his office, leaving him standing there crying.


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with ER and don't own the characters so please don't sue!_

_A bit of angst in the last chapter - hope you don't mind but we can't have everything being all lovey-dovey can we?? _

_Thanks for the reviews ML!! I'm so happy someone's enjoying the story!!_

**Chapter 10 – Alone again**

It had been several weeks since Robert and Andrea had stopped seeing each other. They found it reasonably easy to avoid one another at work, seeing as they didn't operate together anyway and Andrea would often send Neela in her place at committee meetings. Really though it was Andrea avoiding Robert. She was polite and professional but nothing more. He, on the other hand would often make any excuse to be near her, requesting her for meetings that didn't require her presence and paging her to the ER for cases that weren't really neurosurgical. This did not go unnoticed by Susan.

She was dealing with a trauma in the ER and had called Robert down for a surgical consult. During his assessment he noticed the patient had some bruising and a laceration on the back of their head and immediately requested Andrea be called down.

"Are you sure Dr Romano? It's not really a neuro case..." She knew he was paging her unnecessarily.

"That's _my_ decision Dr Lewis" he shot back.

Susan decided to stay quiet. She had wondered several times whether she and Andrea had misread the situation with Robert and Elizabeth that night. She was loyal to her friend, but the past few weeks had shown her that they may have jumped to conclusions. Susan knew why Andrea broke up with him though – she had had her run of bad relationships and at the slightest sign of trouble she was out of there. Susan respected that. They both assumed that he and Elizabeth would hook up, or that they would at least notice them spending more time together, but it had come out that Elizabeth was seeing another surgeon at the hospital, and was quite open about it. Elizabeth had even spoken to Susan, wanting to clear things up. She assured her that nothing had happened and Susan believed her. She didn't really like Elizabeth but she knew her well enough to know she wouldn't lie about that sort of thing; she wasn't one to be apologetic for her actions.

Andrea walked into the trauma room, her face sinking when she saw Robert there. "My, my, not _another _neuro consult, surely?" She said sarcastically.

"Good morning Dr Garrity" he said gently, looking at her hopefully.

"Morning Dr Romano" Andrea replied professionally, moving to assess the patient. It made Susan's heart break a little. She knew by the way he was looking at her that he still loved her – a great deal. And she knew Andrea still loved him, otherwise she wouldn't still be so cut up about everything. She knew in that moment she had to fix things, but not before she spoke to Romano. She wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily.

"Can you just irrigate and suture this wound? There's no neurosurgical indications here" Andrea said, signing the chart and handing it to Susan. "Are we still on for tonight?"

"Yep, see you at 8 chickadee" Susan smiled at her friend.

"See you then." She gave a barely perceptible nod to Robert and made her way out. Susan watched Romano watch her, before dragging his attention back to the patient.

"Belly is fine, no bleeding. Just admit overnight for observation" he said to Susan.

"Sure" she replied. He started to make his way out. "Dr Romano?" He turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

"Do you have a few minutes? I need to talk to you about something....personal."

"I hope it's not about maternity leave or 'women's problems'" he smirked.

"Very funny. Your office in 10 minutes?" He simply nodded his response and strode out the door.

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The elevator doors to the surgical floor opened and Susan stuck her head out comically and looked either way to make sure Andrea wasn't in sight.

"Can I help you Dr Lewis?" Susan jumped in fright and looked up to see Shirley standing there looking at her very bemused.

"Um, I was just looking to see if Andrea was around?" Susan asked, holding the doors open.

"She's still in surgery, and will be for awhile."

"Great, thanks Shirley" she said walking out of the elevator and sneaking down to Romano's office. She noticed his secretary wasn't at her desk, so just walked through and knocked on his door.

"What!?" He boomed, startling her. She opened the door and quickly walked in, looking behind her to make sure no one saw her.

"Ah Dr Lewis...come in and take a seat" he said gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. "So what can I do for Dr Garrity's partner in crime? Or should I just leave so you can snoop around my office too?" He said looking unimpressed.

"Look, Robert...I don't know what to say, but I'm fairly certain that Andrea and I may have jumped to conclusions about what we saw...."

"When you were snooping around my house?"

"Yeah. Anyway...I want to help fix it" she said slowly.

"What makes you so sure that _I_ want it fixed Susan" he said.

"Come on Robert...all the requests for her to come down to consults, the looks. I can tell you love her and I want to help."

"So you believe me then? That nothing happened between Elizabeth and me?"

"Yes I do. I don't approve of you lying to her - you should have just been honest, but I believe nothing happened, and I'm sorry. Elizabeth actually spoke to me about it the other week. Look, Andrea has been really badly hurt in past relationships, and I don't want her to get hurt again, so if you're intentions aren't pure, you should just tell me now and we will leave things as they are." Robert leaned back in his seat and rubbed his chin, considering what she had said.

"I would _never _hurt Andrea, Susan" he said seriously. "I love her and have no intentions other than loving her. So, how do you propose we go about this?"

Susan was relieved. "She's coming to my house for dinner tonight, and you are going to be there too – and I will leave, and you two can actually _talk _it out" she said, looking quite pleased with herself.

"She'll just walk out Susan..."

"She _won't._ Give her some credit."

"OK, OK. So if she's getting there at 8, I'll be there at 8:15. What's your address?" He wrote it and the time down. "I'll see you then."

"Good. I'll see you tonight." She got up and peeked out the office door to check who was there, and when the coast was clear, raced out. Robert found this quite amusing.

Robert had butterflies in his stomach. He so wanted this to work...all he needed was the time alone with her, and Susan was giving him the opportunity. He thought about Andrea constantly and did everything he could to have an excuse to be near her, but to no avail. He pulled open the second draw of his desk where a turquoise Tiffany's box sat. He had seen the most exquisite pearl earrings as he walked past the store last week and he had to buy them for Andrea, even though he probably wouldn't ever get to give them to her. It was crazy, but they were so perfect for her he couldn't resist. He pulled the box out and put it in his coat pocket. He would give them to her tonight, even if she rejected him.

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Andrea rang Susan's doorbell bang on 8 o'clock, holding a huge bag of Chinese food and a bottle of wine.

"Hi!" Susan said enthusiastically, opening the door. "Come in, come in."

"You sure sound happy tonight" Andrea said suspiciously.

"What? No, I'm just happy to see you, it feels like ages."

"I saw you this morning...."

"Anyway, so what's up?" Susan asked while dishing out the Chinese and taking a secretive glance at her watch. 8:07.

"Nothing much – just work" Andrea said, tucking into a spring roll. "What's with Romano calling me to all these bogus consults?"

"As if you don't know" Susan started. "He wants to see you. Maybe you should think about forgiving him – he's not seeing Elizabeth and you know she spoke to me about it all and I believe her that nothing happened. He loves you."

"Which side are you on?" Andrea said crankily, glaring at Susan.

"You KNOW I'm on your side – that's why I'm talking to you about this. I love you and I don't want to see you pass up someone who really cares about you because of a silly misunderstanding."

"I don't know...." Andrea stopped on hearing the doorbell. "Are the other girls coming round?" She asked. Susan looked at her with a look that said 'this is for your own good' and answered the door...to Romano. Andrea stood there shocked. Romano looked at her shyly and made his way inside.

"Right" Susan said, grabbing her coat. "I'm outta here. You guys need to talk. Robert, there's plenty of food – tuck in." And she was gone.

Andrea stood there looking around – at anything but him. She had her arms crossed and was tapping one of her feet. He looked disturbingly good. He was wearing jeans and a black chunky zip-up sweater, the sleeves pushed casually up to the elbows.

Robert decided to just go for it. "Andrea.....please listen to me" he walked closer to her and grabbed her hands – it was like a bolt of electricity going through both of them. "I'm so sorry I lied to you, I shouldn't have done that, but nothing happened between Elizabeth and me. Nothing. I love you and I want to be with you and only you. You're the most amazing woman I've ever met." Her resolve broke immediately and she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her hair.

"I'm so sorry Robert" she said through tears. "I just couldn't stand the thought of losing you and the thought of the two of you was just too much to bear, so I ditched you before you could ditch me."

"I was never going to do anything of the sort" he said and sought out her lips, kissing her passionately. He lifted his hands to stroke her face and neck. She moaned into his mouth and he kissed her with more hunger than ever before. He reached down and grabbed her ass, pushing himself against her. He was harder than he could ever remember being in his life. "Let's get outta here" he said hoarsely. They stumbled to the front door and managed to get through it, slamming it shut and nearly falling down the stairs. They got into his car and drove to his house, kissing at all the red lights, the cars behind beeping because they kept on kissing well into the green lights. They pulled up in front of his house, Andrea laughing internally thinking of her and Susan crawling around on all fours in the garden – her in a designer dress and coat. He struggled to get the front door open, in between kisses. They finally made it inside and Andrea gasped as she looked around. His house was palatial.

"Robert – this house is _amazing_! It's like a castle." It was pretty impressive on the outside, but inside was incredible.

"It's OK I guess" he said vaguely. "It's too big just for me. I always thought I'd have a family and dog by now, so I bought the biggest house I could to accommodate that. Silly, I know."

"No, it's not silly – it's sensible" she said stroking his face. They made their way to the kitchen.

"Do you want a glass of wine?" He asked, walking towards his wine fridge.

"Wait a second – you teased me about having one of these and now you have one?"

"Well, I have a big collection...." She playfully slapped his arm. "So, do you want me to open a bottle?"

"No." He looked at her questioningly. "I want you to show me the bedroom" she said flatly, yet seductively. He walked forward and took her hand, leading her out of the kitchen, through the dining room and the lounge room, up a huge staircase and down the hallway to a room at the end. His bedroom was massive and had a huge en-suite with a double walk-in shower and a spa. He also had a huge bed – like the size of two double beds put together. "Is that a bed or a gymnastics mat?" She laughed.

"Well, that depends on what you're doing _in _the bed, so it's both really" he joked.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm _very _flexible" she said, rubbing her hands on his firm chest. He leant down to kiss her and pushed her gently towards the bed. They didn't even bother with foreplay – they just wanted to be connected. Afterward, they collapsed, exhausted. "That really was as good as I remembered" she said, catching her breath.

"I'll make it up to you next time – I just wanted to be inside you" he said, kissing her neck.

"I suppose I'll allow you to" she laughed.

"You have no idea how happy I am that you're here" he said, stroking her bare arm. He then remembered his gift for her in his coat. "I'll be back in a second" he said, kissing her quickly. He got up and covered himself with his robe. She got a quick glimpse of his perfect butt before it was covered. She smiled to herself. He ran downstairs to the coat rack to retrieve the iconic box and raced back upstairs. He held it behind his back and climbed back into bed with her.

"I saw these the other day and had to get them for you – I hope you like them" he said shyly before offering her the box.

"Oh, Robert! Tiffany's?" He smiled at her excitement. She opened the box to find the South Sea pearl earrings. Each one had three pearls suspended in sequence with platinum chain. They were fabulous. "Robert – they're beautiful, but you didn't have to...."

"I know I didn't _have to_. I wanted to. I wasn't sure I would ever get the chance to give them to you." He kissed her forehead.

"Thankyou" she said quietly, putting her gift on the bedside table and snuggled up into his nook – that bit just under his underarm and along his side. She breathed in his scent – a mixture of his sweat and cologne, and promptly fell asleep. He looked down at her and saw she was out for the count. He smiled to himself and pulled the covers up over her and fell asleep more content than he had ever been.

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Susan came back to her apartment after midnight. As she came in she hoped she wouldn't walk in on them having sex on her couch or anything. But as she walked in she saw the Chinese untouched and the place empty. 'Shit – what if they killed each other?' She thought. She felt her mobile vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out to see who was messaging her so late at night. It was Andrea. All the message entailed was a smiley face.


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I don't own ER or any of the ER characters._

_Please R&R!! This chapter starts off pretty steamy - definitely R rated – I feel I robbed you in the last chapter!!_

**Chapter Eleven – Waking**

Robert awoke to Andrea straddling him and kissing his neck. He had no idea what time it was, but it was still pitch black outside. He could hear thunder rumbling gently in the distance and saw the occasional flash of lightning, which illuminated the room and the beautiful woman sitting on top of him.

"Isn't this technically rape Andrea? Taking advantage of a poor, defenceless man in his sleep" he said, running his hands up her back and tangling in her hair.

"I knew you would wake up eventually" she said in her Australia drawl. She kissed down his chest to his rock-hard stomach, teasing him, before heading down to her destination and taking him into her mouth. He groaned loudly and his hands tightened in her hair. The brief flashes of lightning showed him exactly what she was doing to him with her lips and tongue and it was driving him crazy – she was so sexy.

"Andrea – I'm not going to last much longer" he gasped.

She stopped for a brief second. "That's OK, just let it go" she said before continuing, matching her previous rhythm perfectly. He moaned loudly, arching his back and coming hard. Much to his surprise – and delight, she had taken his release into her mouth. She got up quickly to rinse her mouth out in the bathroom – she didn't think he would appreciate tasting himself on her - and made her way back to his warm bed. "Was that worth being woken up?" She said, seductively, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him.

"It was amazing – _you _were amazing. If only I could wake up like that _all _the time." He ran his fingers through her long dark hair and stroked her neck, slowly tracing circles down to her breasts, teasing her nipples to hardness, making her gasp. There wasn't the naked lust they had earlier in the night and on the first weekend they had spent together. He wanted to take his time pleasing her – to really make love to her rather than merely having sex. He kissed her deeply, pushing her down gently on the bed and hovering over her, holding himself up on his elbows with his strong arms. He moved his right hand down her body, grazing her stomach and stroked her thighs, teasing her. He worked his way towards her centre in slow, languid circles which made her squirm with delight and she moaned his name into his ear, exciting him instantly. He gently stroked her centre, amazed at how wet she was, feeling himself throb with every heartbeat. He got up and moved to the end of the bed, kneeling down on the floor and leaning against the mattress.

"What are you doing Robert?" She asked, still breathing heavily.

"Just lie back and relax." He reached forward and grabbed under her ass and slid her to the end of the bed, wrapping her legs around his head. He trailed kisses up her thighs and placed his mouth where his fingers had been moments before. Andrea moaned loudly, arching her back and reaching to grasp his hands tightly. He explored her with his mouth, deliberately holding her back from her own orgasm, despite her protests – he knew she would enjoy it more that way. When he could feel her thighs trembling uncontrollably he knew it was time to let her come. He could feel her contractions against his tongue and she let out a long moan that melted away with a clap of thunder. With the accompanying flash of lightning, he looked up at her and saw her chest heaving with every breath and covered with sweat, despite the room being chilly. He got up and joined her in bed again.

"That was _so_ good Robert" she said, smiling at him.

"Well, I did owe you after earlier on." He had a very self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"I'm just going to have a quick shower – I'm all sweaty and gross" she said, slowly getting up off the bed.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked hopefully.

"Of course you can – it's your shower." He led the way into the en-suite and turned both shower heads on, letting the water run till it was warm enough. "This shower is fantastic – I don't have to worry about you hogging all the hot water" she laughed. She let the water run over her head and down her body. Robert was finding it hard to resist her. He moved from his own part of the shower to hug her from behind, pressing himself against her. "Now who's taking advantage of who?" She asked playfully. He turned her around to kiss her and wrapping his hands around her, lifted her and sat her on the shower's ledge, normally used for shampoo and soap. He moved to stand between her legs and gently pushed into her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as he moved slowly in and out of her, the water dripping down over them. They looked directly into each other's eyes as they came together, and something shifted between them. They both knew in that instant they would never be apart ever again. After they had caught their breath, he helped her off the ledge and they finished washing themselves. Robert handed her a huge bath towel to dry herself and offered her one of his spare robes. "I don't know about you Robert – but I'm _starving_." She realised neither one of them had had any dinner.

"I'm pretty sure I can rustle something up for you" he said, kissing her forehead and taking her hand. He led her through the dark house, which he knew by heart, to the kitchen where he turned the hob lights on, not wanting anything too bright. She sat on a stool at the breakfast bench, while he raided the fridge. Luckily – his cleaning lady had stocked the fridge and he pulled out a selection of cheeses, onion marmalade and water crackers.

"Oh, you know me so well" she said, tucking in. They ate in silence for a few minutes and she looked around the kitchen.

"So...do you like my house" he asked seriously.

"It's lovely Robert – it's a little _masculine_, but you are a man after all. I think we just ascertained that" she giggled.

He laughed gently before looking serious again. "Do you want to make it _your_ house too?" She looked at him and stopped chewing.

"Are you sure Robert? I mean – we only got back together tonight." She looked at the clock on the oven – 2am. "Well, _last _night."

"I've never been more certain of anything in my life." He looked straight at her, trying to figure out how she felt about his proposition. "You can do whatever you like with the place – we can change the kitchen however you want – paint – get all new furniture...just nothing too girly."

"Do I really come across as the kind of woman who paints everything pink and has teddy bears? Well – I have teddies – but only the lace ones." He smiled at her.

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes, it's a yes. But I'm only going to rent my place out to start with." She knew she had to be sensible – no matter how swept off her feet she was.

"Whatever makes you the most comfortable" he said, kissing her. He was so happy. Yesterday his life was shit and today, he had the love of his life back and she was going to move in with him. He had never lived with a woman before – he usually wanted them out 30 seconds after they had sex. As happy as he was, he realised there were still many things they hadn't discussed, and he thought there was no time like the present. "What about your home – Australia. We've never talked about whether you would stay here permanently or not. You told me being here in Chicago suited at the moment, but what about long term?" He crossed his arms and leaned down on the kitchen bench.

"Honestly – it was a really hard thing to decide. When I'm at home, I don't want to be there and when I'm away, I miss it. I think I'm destined to always be missing somewhere. I did, however, put both my houses on the market recently. I'm pretty sure I want to stay here. I'm lucky I have the money to go home whenever I want, so that takes a lot of the stress away."

"What about your family?"

"They understand. I hardly got to see my parents and brother when I was living in Sydney anyway and I don't exactly get along with my sister....They always knew I was never going to be a homebody. I moved overseas as soon as I finished my training and have been away ever since really."

"I'd love to visit Australia with you sometime" he said enthusiastically. He'd love to see where she came from and how she grew up. Most Americans – him included – were pretty ignorant about Australia.

"Of course. I'd love that. You do realise as a redhead – well – _former_ redhead, you are going to get sunburnt as hell" she laughed. "And you'll probably get bitten by something venomous..."

"You mean, besides you?" He laughed.

"Oh _very _funny" she said, playfully slapping him. Once they had their fill of cheese, he put the remainder away and switched the lights on. He led her through the house again and up to his – _their_ – bedroom where they fell fast asleep in minutes.


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of ER or ER itself._

_Please R&R guys!! I hope you're enjoying the story still – if you think I should do things differently let me know. Sorry about the delay updating – I've been moving house._

**Chapter 12 Indecent Proposals**

It had been several months since Andrea moved in with Robert and things were going really well. Robert was true to his word and let her make his house her own. He let her re-paint the interior, change the decor and re-do the kitchen – all very tastefully though, there was nothing pink in sight. He even built a little doghouse for Lucy on the back porch, and installed a doggy door so she could come and go as she pleased.

Robert was plodding around the house, drinking his morning coffee. Andrea had gone into work early so he had the morning to himself. He walked around looking at all the ways his home had changed. It used to be dark and dank and was now white and light, very much like his life before he met her. He walked upstairs to their bedroom to have a shower and get ready for work. He looked at all her perfume bottles and skincare products arranged neatly on the bathroom shelf and smiled, he never in a million years thought he would ever have a woman live with him and here he was – shacked up and letting her change everything and he loved it. He had become good friends with Susan and her fire-fighter John, Abby and Luka, Neela and Lucien and Chen and Pratt, though in his opinion – Chen was slumming it with that idiot. Despite being good friends with them, he didn't change the way he was at work - he had a reputation to keep up after all - and they expected that from him. As he got dressed for work, he was thinking about the finance committee meeting he had later that afternoon. The pricks wanted to drastically cut County's budget and Robert simply couldn't let that happen – he was barely keeping the place going as it was, even cutting his own bonus to put the money back into the hospital. Not that anyone knew that, not even Andrea. He made a few phone calls and booked a nice restaurant for dinner – these guys never handed out money unless you fed them first. Driving into the hospital, he decided he would let Andrea take charge in the meeting – she was so much more personable than him, but still direct. He would just get pissed off and yell at everyone and though it would make him feel better, it wouldn't help the hospital. He walked through the ER, spotting Susan drinking a cup of coffee and chatting with Carter.

"Working hard or hardly working Lewis?" He said coldly. She turned to look at him guiltily.

"The board is cleared and admit is empty Dr Romano" she said with equal chill.

"Then shouldn't you have charts to catch up on – you too Carter." Susan and Carter rolled their eyes in unison and moved to their respective stacks of old charts giving Robert a 'Are you happy now?' look. Once he saw they were actually working he made his way to the elevator and pushed the button for the surgical floor. The doors opened to show a nearly empty surgical floor – a rarity. He was thankful for that though, he could spend time with Andrea discussing how they were going to milk some cash out of these guys. He found her in her office, shoes off and feet propped up on her desk. She was on the phone laughing and it took a few seconds for her to notice him standing there.

"Um...Susan, I've gotta go...I'll chat to you soon" she said, and hung the phone up guiltily, noticing how annoyed he looked.

"I was just down there trying to get her to do some work, and as soon as I go she calls _you_ to chat – typical. I should fire all those morons – and shouldn't you be getting ready for this meeting this afternoon?"

"Getting what ready?"

"You're going to take charge Andrea. The hospital needs this money and you're the best person to get it from them."

"When did you decide this? And why are you only telling me this _now_?" She said angrily. How could he just drop this on her at the last minute?

"Relax – we have time to go through everything. You just need to give them the numbers and make it painfully obvious that without this money we're going to have to close some departments and start firing people." He moved and sat on the sofa she had in her office. She sighed and got up to join him, but instead of sitting next to him, she straddled him, smiling.

"So...what can I convince _you_ into doing?" She said sensually. Robert found himself react to her instantly and kissed her deeply.

He pulled away reluctantly. "Andrea....we really have to get this stuff organised" he said hoarsely. "But I promise to make it up to you later" he said, kissing her neck and giving her bum a reassuring squeeze.

"Ok, Ok...." she said, hoping off him and taking a seat next to him. "Right....where do we begin?"

Later that afternoon and about 10 minutes before the meeting, Kerry and Susan met with her, Robert and Shirley. Robert and Andrea represented Surgery, Kerry and Susan represented the ER and Shirley represented all the nursing staff. Together they were the most expensive departments and thus had the most vested interests in securing some cash. Robert made it clear to Kerry to make her argument short and concise and for Susan to keep her mouth shut. He also told Shirley that she needed to defend the nursing numbers as they were short staffed enough as it was. The others made their way into the meeting room and Robert pulled Andrea aside.

"Are you Ok?" He asked.

"I'm fine Robert. I'm only going to regurgitate what you've told me to anyway." He leaned in and kissed her. "Go get them tiger."

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They were all sitting around the restaurant table eating and drinking and despite what was on the line, having a good time. The meeting had gone very well from what he could tell, though they hadn't yet told him where they stood. Andrea was talking with the ringleader – James Malcolm. He was gunning for the white house and didn't care who he screwed over to get there. He was also a Republican, which meant he wasn't that keen on the public health care system. If he had things his way, he'd let all the poor people in Chicago simply die. Even Robert wasn't willing to be that evil for his ambition. He was flirting with Andrea something chronic and it pissed Robert off no end. She kept giving him these looks that said 'get this guy away from me' but was being a good sport. After the restaurant they all went to a cocktail bar. Kerry and Robert thought that with enough booze they might come round to their way of thinking. Susan was trying to keep James away from Andrea, noticing how uncomfortable he made her. Robert walked up to the bar to order some drinks and James slid up next to him.

"So...Rocket Romano...she's a real firecracker eh?" He slurred, clearly already drunk.

"Who exactly are you talking about?" Robert said icily.

"That Australian fox of a surgeon you're lucky enough to work with – Andrea. Not much I wouldn't do to her that's for sure."

"She's a very good surgeon and an excellent head of department" Robert said, trying to control his anger.

"Well, she can do whatever she wants to _my _head" he said, laughing and punching Robert on the shoulder, causing his whisky to slosh out of the glass. Robert looked unimpressed and resisted the urge to punch the man. James looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'll tell you what Robert...if I can take her to bed, you can have your money – in fact – I'll _double_ the money."

Robert looked at him with utter disbelief. "You can't be serious..."

"I'm dead serious Rocket. I get to fuck her and you get your cash – how easy is that?"

"What makes you think she would even sleep with you anyway?" He said. He didn't want to let on that he was her boyfriend and piss him off, but he wasn't going to stand for him speaking about the woman he loved like that.

James smirked at Robert. "Robert, I hardly think I need to teach _you_ of all people about threatening people." Robert stood there looking at James. "_Come on_ – it's easy. You tell her she'll lose her job and that you'll make sure she never works in Chicago ever again if she doesn't. She'll do it. Trust me. Deep down all women are whores; you just need to find out their price. I reckon her price is $5 million – and it's all yours if you want it."

Robert turned to look James straight in the eyes. "Let's get something straight" Robert started slowly. "That woman is too good for you to even _glance _at, let alone for you to take to bed. The only bed she graces is _mine_, and if I so much as see you even _look_ at her again, you'll regret it. Do I make myself clear?" He said quietly through gritted teeth.

James simply smirked. "Well, you sure can pick them Robert. Normally you go for the real whores, but she's a cut above – what the hell does she want with you? No - don't answer that, you know what she wants deep down. Well...best of luck. By the way you're not getting your money. For all I care County can burn to the ground – with you in it." He snarled, downing the last of his drink and walked away, stopping only to get the others on the committee.

Kerry, Susan, Shirley and Andrea all looked in shock as they stormed out of the bar, and then turned to glare at Robert. He slowly walked towards them wondering how to tell them what had happened.

"What the hell did you say Robert?" Kerry yelled.

"I didn't say anything that the asshole didn't deserve" Robert said, unwilling to elaborate. He didn't really want Andrea to know what James had said about her. "He wasn't going to give us the money anyway Kerry – so drop it!"

"Did he give a reason?" Susan asked.

"He said there wasn't enough PR appeal for him in helping the hospital" he lied, though it really wasn't too far from the truth.

"Shit!" Andrea and Susan said in unison.

"Well, Robert, we need to meet tomorrow to see how the hell we're going to keep the hospital open" Kerry said angrily, leaning heavily on her crutch.

"Surely the Alderman owes some cash for services rendered Kerry?" Robert said. Susan and Andrea looked at each other not sure what to say.

"Very funny Robert. Tomorrow at 10. My office" Kerry snapped, turning to leave.

Robert rubbed his forehead angrily. What the hell were they going to do? "Come on, let's get a cab" he said quietly, walking ahead of them and out the door. Susan and Andrea linked arms and followed him out into the night.

"I think there's more to this than he's letting on" Susan whispered to her friend.

"I know. I'll see what I can find out."

"Use sex as a weapon if you need to" Susan laughed.

Robert hailed a cab and gave the driver Susan's address followed by his own. 5 minutes later they pulled up outside Susan's apartment block. Susan gave Andrea a quick hug and gave her the symbol for 'call me' when Robert wasn't looking. Andrea nodded her understanding. They waited for Susan to get into her apartment and asked the cabbie to drive on. Robert was silent for the whole trip home, and Andrea simply interlaced her hand with his in quiet support.


	13. Chapter 13

_Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of ER or ER itself so please don't sue!_

_There might be a bit of a delay after this chapter as I'll be without the net for little bit, but I will be back!!_

**Chapter Thirteen – Reassessment**

Robert walked slowly to the front door and slid his key into the lock, walking into the dark and switching on a few lights as he went. Lucy wagged her tail and ran up to him, but sensing his bad mood, quickly changed tack and ran up to Andrea who picked the little dog up to cuddle her. Robert walked straight into the kitchen and poured both of them a glass of wine. Andrea didn't really want one but if it was the only way to get him to talk then she'd just go along with it.

"Robert, are you OK?" She asked tentatively. She knew him well enough to know that if he didn't want to talk, he wouldn't talk.

"I'm fine" he said through gritted teeth.

Andrea sighed. "Well, if you're not going to talk to me then I'm going to bed." She popped Lucy back on the floor and got up to move to the bedroom.

Robert turned and grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry, stay, please."

Andrea sat back down. "What happened Robert – what did that twat say to you?"

Robert sighed, he didn't want to tell her but he also knew she was like a dog with a bone and wouldn't let up until she knew the truth. She could read him like a book. "He just made it very clear there was no way they were going to help County."

"Surely he gave a reason Robert, if he never had any intention of giving us funding then why even meet with us at all?"

Robert hesitated and looked anywhere but at her. "He made me an offer that I couldn't accept Andrea."

"You turned the money _down_? Why the hell would you do that Robert? Do you know what's at stake?"

Robert put his wine glass down on the granite bench. "He told me he would only give us the money if...." he stopped.

"If _What?_ Did I do something wrong in the meeting?" She was getting frustrated now.

"No, of course not." He paused. "He told me he would only give us the money if you slept with him. He offered me $5 million. Double what we needed."

Andrea looked at him in shock. He offered the money to sleep with her! What a slimy bastard! "Are you _serious_?" She said with disbelief.

Robert nodded glumly. "I told him he wasn't even good enough to look at you, let alone take you to bed" he said quietly and leaned in to kiss her. He turned around to the sink to rinse his glass out, adding under his breath "No one talks about the woman I'm going to marry like that."

"What did you say Robert?" He snapped his head around, not realising she would have heard him. _Did _she hear that last bit? He cursed himself internally; his big mouth was always screwing things up.

"Nothing" he said evasively. Andrea didn't question him further and he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want to scare her off; she would surely think it was too soon for marriage. She still hadn't sold her house in Chicago yet and whenever he mentioned it she got grumpy at him and to be honest her reluctance to cut her ties and really commit to their life together scared him.

"Well, obviously I'm not going to sleep with him" she said.

"Well, duh" he teased.

She threw a tea towel at him, smacking him on his bald head. "But thank you for defending my honour."

"I'd jump in front of a train for you Andrea" he said seriously. She always felt overwhelmed when he talked like that, he was so passionate. She stroked his face and kissed him passionately.

"You need to tell Weaver though, otherwise she'll blame you for everything" she said, standing up to go to bed. Robert followed behind her and Lucy behind him.

"Are you sure you want her to know?"

"Weaver doesn't bother me Robert, she's a pain in the ass but she'll understand your reaction if she knows what that creep said. She knows we're together and she's not that evil deep down, she's a lot like you actually – hard on the outside and soft on the inside." He looked at her with a frown, insulted at the comparison. Andrea looked thoughtful. "Maybe I should date _her_ instead of you...she is gay after all. I might be her type, maybe she'd convince me to jump the fence" Andrea laughed as Robert stopped in his tracks.

"Well, that's one way to turn me off" he said. Andrea just laughed.

"Well, how can I turn you back on?" She said seductively, walking up to him and kissing his neck.

"I don't think I can afford you - I know what your going rate is now. I'm a wealthy man, but not _that _wealthy." They both laughed.

"I'll give you a freebie this time" she said, pressing her lips against his. She giggled and turned and ran to the bedroom with him following quickly behind.

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The next morning Robert walked into Kerry's office full of dread. The last thing he felt like was a pissing match with her. He took a seat in front of her desk and waited for her to speak first.

"Well, I hope you're happy Robert. You've really screwed us on this" she said angrily.

"Stop right there" he said coldly. She shut her mouth immediately at the tone of his voice. "That...prick only offered the money in exchange for Andrea for the night; and while _you_ may not be adverse to providing 'favours' for money from the Alderman Kerry, Andrea is not a whore. We'll find the money from someone else." Kerry looked at him with shock.

"Oh...well...then..." she stammered.

"Well _that _shut you up" he said sarcastically. Weaver looked at him, unimpressed. "The way I see it, the Alderman is rivalling that asshole for a seat in the White House, maybe he'll be willing to help out where James won't – get some public favour." Weaver looked at him thoughtfully.

"I'll have a word" she said simply. He got up to leave, stopping and facing her just as he reached the door.

"Oh, by the way – if you sully Andrea's name in any way by telling people about this – you're fired. Got it?"

Weaver sat there in silence, an acknowledgement of his threat.

"I'll take that as a yes" he said, storming out the door.

Robert was sitting at his desk doing some paperwork when his phone rang. He picked it up, annoyed at the interruption. It was his travel agent calling to confirm his booking, which he had totally forgotten about making. He was going to surprise Andrea with business class tickets to Australia for her birthday - which was this weekend - among the many other things he had already bought her. He loved spoiling her. He sat back and rubbed his face roughly, suddenly very tired. The phone rang again, shattering the silence in the room.

"What?"

"Robert? It's Kerry." He rolled his eyes. She was silent for a few moments. "We've got the money from the Alderman."

Robert surprised himself by being impressed with her, and let out a sigh of relief. "That's good news. Well done Kerry, I owe you a favour."

"Good, I need 2 weeks leave starting next week" she said, clearly with a smile.

"Fine – but now we're even. I can go back to hating you." He hung up the phone, not willing to let her have the last word. He got up and wandered down the hall to see if Andrea was in her office to tell her the good news, but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked at the surgical board to see if she was in surgery, but her name wasn't on there. She was probably having lunch with Lewis chin-wagging away. His pager sounded loudly making him jump. 'Damn ER' he thought, making his way to the elevator.

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Andrea was down in the ER looking for Susan. She found her with a patient who had a light bulb in his mouth. She looked over at Andrea and shook her head, exasperated. Susan handed the chart over to Haleh and rolled her eyes.

"Did you know you can get a light bulb into your mouth, but not out again?"

"Um, no. But thanks for the trivia." Andrea said, clearly distracted.

"Are you OK?" She asked, concerned.

"No, not really. Can we speak privately – in an exam room?"

"Of course." Susan looked at the board to see what was free and ushered Andrea into exam room 4.

"So, what's up?"

"I think I've found a breast lump" Andrea said quietly.

Susan was shocked and upset on the inside but took control of the situation; Andrea needed someone to be strong right now, until they knew what was what. "OK, let's not panic. Where is it?" Susan asked calmly, getting some latex gloves. Andrea pointed to where it was and let Susan examine her. "There is definitely a lump there, but we can't say what it is until you have a biopsy, so don't jump to conclusions."

"I know, I know. Can you just do a needle biopsy now? Please?"

"Of course I can. Is it OK if I get Abby to help?"

"Sure, just make sure no one else finds out OK?"

"Of course I won't. Believe it or not, I can actually be very professional occasionally." Susan left the exam room to get the things necessary for the procedure, leaving Andrea alone feeling very scared.

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Robert was walking back towards the elevator after his surgical consult. While he waited for the lift he looked briefly into the exam rooms in front of him, and saw Abby close the blind on her, Andrea and Susan in Exam room 4. Abby was facing the other way so didn't notice him standing there. He also noticed there was no patient in the room, even though they were setting up a procedure kit. He brushed it off thinking they were probably just teaching Abby some procedures now she was back in medical school, and headed back up to the surgical floor.

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Andrea lay back on the table so Susan could prep the area with iodine and inject her with local anaesthetic. To take her mind off what she was having done to her and while they waited for the local anaesthetic to work, she filled Susan and Abby in on what had happened the night before; including the bit where Robert had mumbled 'No one talks to the woman I'm going to marry like that.' He thought that she didn't hear him, but she had and it was freaking her out a bit.

"It's just a little intense – I mean, I've already moved in with him – that's a big deal for me, especially so early in the relationship."

Abby was the unusual voice of reason. "Look, just because he _wants_ to marry you, doesn't mean that he's going to ask you straight away. As much as it galls me to say it, Romano is a sensible man, just trust him."

"Yeah, well, he won't want to marry me when he finds out I have breast cancer" She said sadly.

"Don't be silly" Susan said, inserting the biopsy needle. "I told you not to jump to conclusions. You need to tell him you've had this done by the way Andrea, don't surprise him with it later, OK?"

"I know I do, I just wanted to have this done first." The biopsy didn't take very long, and before she knew it, Susan had sent the specimen off to the lab and she was on her way back to the surgical floor. She walked past Robert's office and heard him call out after her. She stopped and rolled her eyes, back-tracking her steps. She didn't really want to talk to him right now. She wanted to go home early and eat ice cream in the bath tub. She walked into his office and stood in front of his desk.

"We got the money. Kerry, the snide little witch she is, convince the Alderman." He looked so pleased about the resolved situation, but she just couldn't get up any enthusiasm.

"That's great Robert; it must be a huge weight off your shoulders." He looked at her, immediately knowing something was wrong, she looked fed up and worried.

"Are you OK?" He asked, getting up behind his desk and walking around to hug her.

"I'm fine. I've just got a huge headache" she lied. "Is it OK if I go home early?"

"Sure, do you want me to come home with you?"

"No, its fine – besides, do you really want to leave Weaver here on her own without you to rope her in?" She laughed half-heartedly.

"That's true, she's done one good deed, so I'm sure she's got 20 evil ones up her sleeve. You take my car and I'll get a cab home later." He handed her his keys. He'd never let anyone drive his Jag before. 'What's happening to you Rocket – you're going soft' he thought. She took them gratefully and kissed him quickly, then turned to leave.

About an hour later, Shirley came into his office looking for Andrea. "I've got some results marked 'urgent' from the lab for Dr Garrity, but she's gone home sick."

"Yes, Shirley, I'm aware of that" he snarled. "Give them here and I'll call her and let her know her patient's results." Shirley handed over the file, not knowing that she was actually handing over Andrea's biopsy results. He looked at what she had handed him. It wasn't like most patient files; it was a discreet envelope, which was unusual. He ripped open the tab and pulled the papers out, briefly looking over them. He paused when he noticed it was Andrea's name on the report and wondered whether the lab made a mistake by putting the Doctor's name on instead of the patient's. He thought for a moment and his heart nearly stopped when he put two and two together – her in the exam room and the rushed labs with her name on them. It was no accident. He read the diagnosis further down the sheet – Stage One Breast Carcinoma.


End file.
